Spirit-forward and nearly black in the glass, it is vodka cut with coffee liqueur over ice — bittersweet roast up front, a faint sweetness trailing behind, and nothing to blunt the clean bite of the spirit. Stirred cold on the rocks, it drinks lean and bracing, the White Russian before the cream goes on.
Stirred · Rocks · On the Rocks
build
Fill an old fashioned (rocks) glass with ice cubes.
add
Pour the vodka and coffee liqueur over the ice.
stir
Stir gently to combine and chill.
The drink is the work of Gustave Tops, a Belgian bartender who first poured it at Brussels' Hotel Métropole in 1949. He made it in honour of Perle Mesta, the American diplomat then serving as US ambassador to Luxembourg, and she took the recipe home to Washington, from where it settled into the standard bar repertoire. A float of cream turns the same pairing into the White Russian, and the IBA now lists the original two-ingredient build as an official cocktail.