Soft and dessert-leaning, the Toasted Almond sets amaretto's marzipan sweetness and faintly bitter edge against the dark roast of coffee liqueur, with a generous pour of cream smoothing the two into one rich, pale-tan whole. Served cold over fresh ice under an optional dusting of nutmeg, it drinks like a nightcap — gentle, low-proof, and close to an almond-coffee confection in a glass.
Garnish: Grated Nutmeg
shaken · Rocks · On the Rocks
add
Add amaretto, coffee liqueur, and cream to a shaker filled with ice.
shake
Shake vigorously for 10-15 seconds until well chilled and lightly frothy.
strain
Strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh cubed ice.
garnish
Optionally garnish with toasted almonds or a light grating of nutmeg.
No one is on record as the inventor of the Toasted Almond; it belongs to the 1980s boom in rich, creamy liqueur drinks, a near relation of the Sombrero and the White Russian. It caught on through bartenders' habit rather than any single author's recipe, and it is now listed among the cocktails built on amaretto, made with either cream or milk and, in some versions, a measure of vodka. Proportions still shift from one recipe to the next, though nearly all keep the two liqueurs equal and let the cream match or outweigh them.