Day 61: Some of Our Best Friends Are Russian

The Black Russian is a classic, first appearing in 1949 under its original name, the Dirty Commie.  It is a combination of vodka and coffee liqueur.  As with other duo cocktails the drink has a high alcohol content.  The alcohol is definitely a featured component of the Black Russian, but the coffee liqueur added a pleasant flavor.  Of course if you hate coffee, it added an unpleasant flavor.  It also gave you a nice warm feeling in your stomach after a sip, just like a half-caf venti four pump vanilla half soy no foam extra hot cinnamon swirled mocha latte would.

WTF? The glass is tiny and
it is still mostly empty

Picking the final rating for the Black Russian wasn't easy.  On my first sip it was a bit too strong, but after the shock wore off it became more inviting.  You always have to give the drink time to settle in.  Even so, we were going to give this drink a rating of three. After noticing that Mrs. Bottle ended up finishing the whole drink, I decided to bump it to a four. She did mention that letting the ice melt a little helped.  Of course if we bumped every drink by a point just because one of us finished it, we would have worse inflation than the Weimar Republic.

Even though the Black Russian was good, Mrs. Bottle thought that increasing the amount of coffee liqueur would make it even better.  She also thought that adding some cream would make it tastier still.  Of course had we added milk or cream we would have had a White Russian, one of the many variants of this drink.  If you removed the vodka, you have a Senator Joe McCarthy.  Using skim milk in a White Russian gives you an Anna Kournikova.  That one looks a lot better than it tastes.  There is even one where you add Yoo Hoo to a Black Russian; it is called Why Are You Punishing Me, Jesus?

"George Bush doesn't care about Black Russians"

Overall Rating for the Black Russian

Taste: 4

Presentation: 3

Ease of Preparation: 5

Drinks Until Blackout: 3 – 36% Alcohol

Ingredients

1.5 oz Vodka

.75 oz Coffee Liqueur