Modern Classic

Revolver

A Manhattan with a coffee kick

Ingredients

60mlBourbonOld Grand-Dad Bonded recommended
15mlCoffee LiqueurTia Maria recommended
2 dashesOrange BittersFee Bros recommended

Make it well

Stir

Directions

1. Add the bourbon, coffee liqueur and orange bitters to a mixing glass with ice. 2. Stir for 20-30 seconds until well chilled. No citrus in this one, so it's stirred. 3. Strain into a chilled coupe or Nick and Nora glass. 4. Cut a swathe of orange peel, hold it skin-side down over the glass and carefully flame it with a lit match to release and ignite the oils, then drop it in. Hold it well clear of yourself and anything flammable while you do this.

Taste

Dark and rich, the bourbon's caramel and oak deepen into a bittersweet roasted-coffee note from the liqueur, more dessert-adjacent than a standard Manhattan but kept in check by the orange bitters. The flamed orange oil hits you on the first sniff before you've even tasted it, smoky and aromatic, and it threads through the whole sip. A proper after-dinner sipper, silky and strong.

Origin

The Revolver was created in 2004 by San Francisco bartender Jon Santer at Bruno's, a jazz club in the Mission District, built around a surplus of Bulleit bourbon behind the bar and the structure of a Manhattan, with coffee liqueur standing in for the vermouth. It barely registered with Bruno's crowd at first. It found its real audience after Santer joined the opening team of Bourbon & Branch in 2006, where it became a signature pour in the bar's semi-private Library room, and spread from there into the wider modern cocktail world, where it's now considered a genuine modern classic.

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