Boston Caribbean Coffee
Hot coffee with dark rum and chocolate liqueur, sweetened with a spoon of brown sugar and finished with whipped cream and nutmeg. It is a warm, molasses-and-chocolate winter coffee, and this is a clean, working method for it.
At a glance
- Coffee : spirits
- 3:1
- Active time
- 3 min
- Total time
- 4 min
- Makes
- 1 glass
- Serve
- Hot, with cream
- Kit
- Heatproof glass
Ingredients
Note: The old version of this page had instructions that had been garbled over the years. This is a rebuilt method with the same ingredients.
Method
-
Sugar and coffee
Warm a heatproof glass with hot water and empty it. Add the brown sugar and hot coffee and stir until dissolved.
-
Rum and cacao
Add the dark rum and crème de cacao and stir once.
-
Cream and nutmeg
Float the lightly whipped cream over the back of a spoon and grate nutmeg over it. Drink through the cream.
Why this works
Dark rum is made from molasses and aged, often in charred barrels, which gives it caramel, dried fruit and a faint bitterness. Those flavours sit naturally beside dark-roasted coffee, which carries its own caramel and roasted notes from the same kinds of browning reactions. A spoon of dark brown sugar, which still contains molasses, ties the two together. White sugar works, but loses that link.
Crème de cacao adds a soft chocolate note and more sweetness. It is a small amount, half the rum, because too much turns the drink into a chocolate liqueur with coffee in it. Coffee, rum, molasses and cacao are all products of the tropics, and the combination tastes like it.
The cream floats because dissolved sugar and liqueur make the coffee denser than lightly whipped cream, the same principle as an Irish coffee. It is drunk through, not stirred in, so the alcohol is softened by the cream and each sip is cold, then hot. Nutmeg on top adds a warm, sweet spice that is classic with both rum and cream.
Old recipe collections attach several place names to rum and coffee combinations, and their stories are rarely written down. What matters here is the build. Sugar dissolved first, spirits second, cream last, and nothing stirred after the cream goes on.
Variations
- With coffee liqueur: replace the crème de cacao with coffee liqueur for a double coffee drink.
- Spiced: a pinch of cinnamon and allspice with the sugar.
- Iced: cold brew, rum and cacao shaken over ice, topped with cream.
- Keoke: brandy and coffee liqueur instead of rum. See Keoke coffee.
Contains about one and a half measures of spirit and liqueur. Not for children, drivers, or anyone avoiding alcohol.
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Questions
What is in a Boston Caribbean coffee?
This version is hot coffee with dark rum, crème de cacao and a little brown sugar, topped with whipped cream and nutmeg.
What rum is best?
A dark, aged rum with molasses character. Spiced rum tends to clash with the coffee.
Why does the cream sink?
The sugar was not dissolved or the cream was not whipped. Stir the sugar into the hot coffee first and whip the cream lightly.
Can I make it without crème de cacao?
Yes. Use a little more sugar and a drop of vanilla, or swap in coffee liqueur.