CL touched on the region’s affection for coffee in our coverage of St. Petersburg-based Made Coffee last month. And, seriously, you guys love this stuff. So much so that it could be the reason why area bartenders have started adding coffee, and cold-brew coffee especially, into their specialty cocktails more and more, going beyond classics like the espresso martini behind the bar.

(Coffee cocktails are also a trend happening on a national level across the country, but nevermind that.)

Thank you, Tampa Bay coffee nerds! Now we’re enjoying drinks such as the after-dinner Mentanite (Caña Brava Rum, cold-brew coffee, orgeat syrup, Branca Menta foam) that The Bricks mixes up in Ybor City. And Good Morning Largo from The Raven, a Largo gastropub-brewery. And The Blue Goose’s seasonal Brew-Kowski (chai tea-infused 360 Vodka, Fernet-Branca, cold-brew coffee, demerara sugar simple) in St. Pete. And Espress-o-Lantern (Crop Pumpkin Vodka, cinnamon syrup, crème de cacao, Made Coffee) at downtown St. Pete’s Proper Kitchen & Cocktails.

Those who tend bar locally have even found a use for coffee elsewhere in their recipes. In Seminole Heights, Ichicoro is doing a coffee-infused shochu for its Soma Drop brunch cocktail, while Proper, back in St. Pete, incorporates coffee-infused aromatic bitters into a drink called Something in My Rye.

Mexican Coffee

Makes 1

1.5 ounce Patron XO

3 ounces cold-brew coffee

1 ounce RumChata

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add tequila and cold-brew coffee. Shake until well-chilled. Fill a rocks glass with ice and strain in cocktail. Top with RumChata and stir to mix.

This article appears in Jan 26 – Feb 2, 2017.