Photo by Michael Piazza

I’ve lived in Boston for five years now, and it took about half of them to accept that New Englanders really do drink iced coffee in any weather. I sit across from you on the T, shaking the snow off of your boots, iced coffee the size of your head in your hand. It used to confuse me, a New Yorker who would book it to the subway on blue paper cups of piping hot Café Bustelo, but over time I came to appreciate the consistency, even feeling the collective pain when hot cups were banned. It was like watching the five stages of grief unfold for a solid couple of weeks at Dunkin’, waiting on line as customers asked, argued and pleaded for that signature foam cup holder. Still, I can’t hang with my caffeine iced until spring at the earliest, so to close out my cocktail tour of Boston, let’s toast to a coffee cocktail that can be enjoyed in any weather! I used Organic French Roast coffee from Equal Exchange, a fairly traded, employee-owned coffee, tea and chocolate company, and black cardamom pods from Christina’s Spice and Specialty Foods in Inman Square, Cambridge, or any local Indian or Nepali market that sells spices.

Makes 1 cocktail

3 ounces cold brew concentrate, chilled (see recipe below)
1½ ounces black cardamom–infused whiskey (I used Uncle Nearest 1884; see recipe below for infusion)
½ ounce Averna amaro
½ ounce heavy cream, chilled (or to taste, however you take your coffee!)
1 dash Fee Brothers Aztec Chocolate bitters

Build all cocktail ingredients except for heavy cream directly in glass (I use a highball glass, but if you threw this in your freshly emptied iced coffee cup, I’d respect it). Add 2 cubes and stir to combine, about 10 seconds. Fill the remainder of the glass with ice and stir again quickly. Top with heavy cream.

COLD BREW CONCENTRATE:
Cold brew concentrate lasts longer than cold brew coffee! Using a French press, cold brew machine or simply a sealed glass jar, mix 1 cup coarsely ground coffee with 3 cups water. Refrigerate overnight. Strain out solids using French press or coffee filter. For the remaining cold brew, concentrate can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks. Add equal parts concentrate to water for 1 cup of cold brew.

BLACK CARDAMOM WHISKEY:
Steep 3–4 pods black cardamom in whiskey for 4–6 hours. Discard the pods.

This recipe appeared in the Spring 2021 issue as part of a larger story called “A Toast to Togetherness.”