Here at in-the-spirit – as
you’d expect – everything always comes
back to cocktails! One of our other favourite things
(apart from chocolate!) is coffee. So if like us,
you love your coffee – especially with liqueurs,
how about trying some of our coffee inspired cocktails?
Never mind coffee with liqueurs – what about
liqueurs in your coffee!
As always, these have all been
tried and tested on as many willing participants
as we can persuade to help – it’s a
hard life working here at the in-the-spirit HQ!
Although you might think they sound a little off
the wall, they really do taste great. Would we
lie to you?
But before you check out our suggested cocktails this month, read on
for some fascinating facts about coffee…
It is not known exactly when the
first person discovered the effects of the coffee
plant and brewed a drink from the berries. Yes,
the coffee plant grows berries – sometimes
referred to as cherries as they develop into a
beautiful red colour - which actually contain the
coffee beans inside!
One of the earliest references
- which dates back to around 300 AD according to
some sources – is of a goat herder in Ethiopia
called Kaldi. He noticed that his goats had been
eating red berries from a tree and that they were
lively and energetic until late in the evening.
He mentioned this to the monks in the nearby monastery
who from then on took the berries to stay awake
during their nightly prayer gathering. By chance
they discovered that the beans could be roasted
and that a beverage prepared from the roasted beans
not only produced the same effect – but also
tasted far better.
Coffee as we know it really began
in Arabia where the roasted beans were first brewed
around 1000 AD. By the 13th century, Muslims were
drinking coffee religiously as it kept worshippers
awake and wherever Islam went – coffee went
too … North Africa, eastern Mediterranean
and India. In the 1600’s coffee plants were
introduced into Europe from Turkey and so the Europeans
love of coffee began …
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