Café Royale

The Café Royale is a hot after-dinner coffee gilded with cognac and a theatrical finish: a sugar cube soaked in brandy is balanced on a spoon over the cup, set aflame, and stirred in once it caramelizes. A staple of 19th-century European cafés — recorded as "French Café Royal" as far back as the 1890s — it marries the bitter depth of fresh coffee with warming grape brandy and a whisper of burnt sugar. No single inventor claims it; the ritual is the recipe.

CoffeeDigestifHotClassicAfter Dinner

Ingredients

  • 4 ozHot Coffee(freshly brewed, hot)
  • 1 ozCognac
  • 1 pieceSugar(soaked in cognac and flamed on a spoon)

Preparation

built · Footed coffee mug · None

  1. 1.

    build

    Pour the hot coffee into a warmed footed coffee mug.

  2. 2.

    add

    Rest a teaspoon across the rim and place a sugar cube on it; soak the cube with a little of the cognac.

  3. 3.

    other

    Carefully ignite the cognac-soaked sugar and let it flame until the sugar caramelizes and the flame dies.

  4. 4.

    build

    Stir the melted sugar and the remaining cognac into the coffee.

  5. 5.

    garnish

    Serve hot, after dinner.

Flavor Profile

temperature
60%
bitter
55%
earthy
40%
body
39%
dilution
23%
smoky
23%
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