Black Hole Sun, a Merger of Bourbon and Cold Brew Coffee

This continues our series on breakfast drinks, where we highlight those cocktails that fortify our mornings with the gin, whiskey and resolve we need to keep going. Today, an old fashioned gets the coffee treatment.

Photo: Bryan Forrester

I like cold brew coffee. I usually make it at home, but when I’m out and require an afternoon pick-me-up, the bottled stuff does the trick. And lately, it’s been bottles of Chameleon. The Austin-based outfit produces a range of cold brews like black coffee, mocha, espresso and chicory. So when I decided that a recent morning could benefit from a cocktail, I reached for the Chameleon Black Coffee and some bourbon.

I’ve been enamored with “Cold Fashioneds” for a couple years now. That would be an Old Fashioned doctored with cold brew–basically whiskey, sugar, coffee and bitters. And for awhile, that was my preferred recipe. But then, last year, I stumbled upon the Black Hole Sun, a drink I first encountered in Imbibe and then encountered in person at Black Hole Coffee House, the Houston shop from whence it originated.

The addition of chocolate bitters plays well with both the bourbon and the coffee. And the addition of orange bitters plus a full lemon wheel ties things together with a citrus-y bow. It goes thusly:

BLACK HOLE SUN

2 oz bourbon (I used Buffalo Trace)
.5 oz cold brew (Chameleon)
.5 oz simple syrup
2 dashes orange bitters
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash chocolate bitters

Build all ingredients in a mixing glass. Stir with ice until chilled. Strain into an old fashioned glass and garnish with a lemon wheel.

For more breakfast drinks, see:
—Few Breakfast Gin
—Eye-Opening Cocktails at Kensington Street Social
—Siberian Summer