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Drink

Coffee Kirsch

A chilled coffee drink flavored with Kirschwasser and brandy, served over shaved ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and coffee are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,344 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Coffee Kirsch

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a wine glass, combine sugar and Kirschwasser.

  2. Add cold black coffee and a dash of brandy.

  3. Fill the glass with fine shaved ice.

  4. Frappe the mixture and strain into a wine glass.

  5. Serve immediately.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Coffee + brandytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together213 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the coffee and the spirits.
Kirschwasser
Provides the main cherry-brandy aroma and flavor of the drink.
Cold black coffee
Supplies the coffee flavor and most of the liquid base.
Brandy
Adds a warm spirit note that deepens the drink's aroma.

The step that matters

Frappe the mixture. Shaking or stirring the mixture over shaved ice chills it quickly and dilutes it slightly, so the drink is cold and balanced rather than syrupy or warm.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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