Blog — cocktail

When our 2023 U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits champion Sam Schroeder concocted the Coffee Sherry, we all knew it was an instant winner: a smoothly-sweet, sumptuous coffee cocktail worthy of a romantic après-dinner lounge. Then along came Reyna Callejo, who just last weekend secured first place in the 2024 Coffee in Good Spirits Qualifiers. Hardly one to leave good enough alone, she’s taken Sam’s Coffee Sherry and done the unthinkable: removed all the booze.Instead, she’s crafted her very own NA sherry and absinthe (yes, from scratch), mixing them in place of their alcoholic counterparts. And the result is, stunningly, almost...

In case you missed it, last week (September 18-23) was Negroni Week. But is it too late to participate? Never!Last weekend, we celebrated in true Olympia Coffee fashion: by creating our own spins on the classic bitter-sweet, equal-parts cocktail. Typically a spirit-forward drink, the Negronis we crafted in our Columbia City cafe were distinctly missing the booze. Yet not missing out on deliciousness — thanks to a flavor-rich, flash-brewed coffee concentrate made with our Big Truck blend. Oh, and a few noteworthy favorites from our non-alcoholic spirits cabinet. Our U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits Champion Sam Schroeder is off to...

Let's be clear: one does not simply walk into the Coffee in Good Spirits competition and come away a winner. To do that, our very own Sam Schroeder had to conjure up some seriously magical coffee cocktails. And none more fantastical than this one: a veritable unicorn of a drink, served up in an iridescent ice cream cone with a pearly bubble—a BUBBLE—on top. For competition, Sam called this cocktail the "Kenya Crush" and used our Ichamama AA, a coffee perfectly suited to deliver a balancing act of refreshing, grapefruit-like bitterness and floral stone-fruit sweetness. But any coffee of a...

Our co-founder Sam Schroeder returned from Portland with a shiny first-place trophy from the U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits Championship... and half a mind to take a couple days off after a very long weekend. So, after some well-earned rest, he was gracious enough to meet us back in our Training Lab to chat about what’s next at the World stage of this competition. And to make one of his winning cocktail recipes: a custom creation that he's whimsically dubbed the "Hot Mama." For competition, Sam was tasked with mixing up three cocktails: two of his own creation, one hot,...