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Think there are enough ways to tickle your brain cells and taste buds with jitters-inducing, delicious coffee? Think again. Aside from award-winning local roasters, there are craft beer-coffee hybrids such as Noble Ale Works’ decadent Naughty Sauce, Beachwood’s Pablo Escobeer and Chapman Crafted’s Slow Riser. But caffeinated-beer-inspired cocktails that contain no beer? What kind of madness is this?
Sitting at the far end of Vaca’s bar during intermezzo, one’s back to various tomahawk steaks and house-cured sausage, the must-get Vaca Tonic ($13) is knocked back at a rate that causes immediate brain freeze. David Saenz, one of the Costa Mesa restaurant’s talented bartenders, introduces me to his newest concoction, the Near Stout ($14).
“You have to try this drink I’ve been working on that is sort of reminiscent of a coffee stout,” he says, his words like catnip to a booze writer.
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I exhale fast to try to kill my frost-bit head.
“It’s more of a daytime crusher than a sweet, desserty drink,” he continues as he pulls a bit of fresh coffee for the cocktail shaker. “Along with El Tesoro Reposado Tequila and Campari, it uses a bit of turbinado sugar to add a little bit of body back into it.” Also in the mix is St. George NOLA coffee liqueur, which uses Ethiopian Arabica coffee beans, French-roasted chicory root, Madagascar vanilla and other complex sugars.
Near Stout is served in a stemmed beer glass, blushing a deep-ruby hue. The pillowy-white head, as it were, is the biggest surprise, as it uses no egg white and doesn’t really dissipate. Resting nicely on top are three coffee beans, a nod to the con la mosca Sambuca serving, each bean representing health, happiness and prosperity.
On paper, the drink makes no sense. When I think of coffee-friendly spirits, tequila is probably near the bottom of the list, but in Near Stout, it adds a balance to the cacophony of fruity flavors. The whole thing has a pleasant Samuel Smith’s Taddy Porter vibe, in which British ales often have stonefruit notes and minerality that can balance out the roast.
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During intermezzo, Vaca’s menu is basically bar snacks, prepped desserts and cheese. I went full dessert mode with a set of warm churros ($8) that come with a thick, goosebump-worthy sauce. I highly recommend dipping once in the gooey chocolate, once in the cocktail, back in the chocolate, bite, then sip, leaving a healthy, happy, prosperous froth-stache. Sure you might look weird, but it’s the next best thing to coffee and doughnuts in the afternoon.
Vaca, 695 Town Center Dr., Ste. 170, Costa Mesa, (714) 463-6060; www.vacarestaurant.com.
Greg Nagel has been writing about beer since 2011, is an avid homebrewer of wine, cider, and beer, is a certified Cicerone Beer Server, level 1 WSET in Wine, a podcaster with the Four Brewers Show, and runs a yearly beer festival called Firkfest happening on June 29th in Anaheim!
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