Barista Spirits Whiskey Debuts

Coffee and distilled spirits – two of our favorite things. Apparently Deviation Distilling feels the same way. They just launched a new brand, “Barista Spirits,” a line of three coffee-inspired whiskies, their first venture into “brown spirits.” This is the first time Deviation has “deviated” from its gin line. We’re excited that they are sharing a recipe with us that uses the new whiskey.

What are Barista Spirits?

The Barista Spirits brand consists of three whiskies: Americano Whiskey (a bourbon whiskey paired with Guatemalan coffee beans), Aztec Whiskey (a rye whiskey paired with Ethiopian coffee, Saigon cinnamon and Madagascar vanilla beans) and Mocha Whiskey (paired with Brazilian coffee and chocolate). For this project, Deviation is keeping it local with Oskar Blues barrels, Cultura Chocolate cocoa shells (in its Mocha Whiskey) and using roasted coffee from Copper Door Coffee Roasters, Deviation’s next door neighbor. If you’re wondering if the spirits will keep you up at night, the folks at Deviation told us that if you’re extremeley sensitive to caffeine, you probably shouldn’t drink it in the evening because there are trace amounts of caffeine. But everyone else shouldn’t feel an effect from the caffeine.

Deviation Distilling has a cocktail lounge and, when they reopen it, they plan to use the three whiskeys to make drinks like Irish Coffee, White Russians, “straight up,” and in other cocktails like their Guat-A-Quat which uses Americano Whiskey, muddled kumquats and cardamom bitters and the Barista-vardier with Aztec Whiskey, housemade campari and housemade vermouth.

June 14 is #NationalBourbonDay. On this day, and any day of the year, we’re excited that Deviation Distilling shared this recipe with In Good Taste Denver readers.

Brown Sugar Irish Coffee with Brown Sugar Whipped Cream

From Deviation Distilling
Makes 1 cocktail but enough Simple Syrup and Whipped Cream for around 7 drinks

Ingredients:

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup water

1 cup brown sugar whipped cream (recipe below)

3 oz freshly brewed coffee

2 oz Barista Americano Whiskey

Method:

Make the brown sugar syrup. Place the brown sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook until the brown sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

Make the brown sugar whipped cream. Using a stand mixer with a whisk attachment or a hand-held whisk, whisk the cream with 1/4 cup of the cooled brown sugar syrup until it forms stiff peaks

Make your cocktail. Place the coffee and whiskey in an Irish coffee glass along with 1/2 ounce of the brown sugar syrup. (Use more or less to taste.) Top with plenty of whipped cream and serve.

A little bit about Deviation Distilling: The company is located in the Santa Fe Arts District in Denver. They started, in 2019, with a line of three gins: Mountain Herb, Citrus Rosé and Spice Trade. In spring 2020, Deviation Distilling launched a new brand of coffee whiskies: Barista Spirits. The team behind Deviation is Cindi Wiley and childhood friends Bob Wiley and Dave Gade. They’ve won gold medals at the Breckenridge Craft Spirits Festival and were awarded the 2019 American Distilling Institute National Brand Identity Award. Reach out to them, here.

What else is In Good Taste? Another recipe Deviation was kind enough to share with us, this time for #NationalGinDay, a Blackberry Mule.

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