Collinwood Cocktails: THE HAND OF COUNT PETOFI

WARNING: Despite the relatively small amount of alcohol in this cocktail, this is NOT a beginner's drink.

Iced coffee is kind of a pain in the ass to make. Not because it's especially difficult, but because most people brew it so infrequently that every pot feels like you're making it for the first time. And, while there's only one way to properly make iced tea (my apologies to our U.K. readers) there are a lot of different ways to make iced coffee, depending on your taste. Here's a feature at Esquire about the drink  ... but it will probably just cloud the waters for novices.

Novices like myself, I should say. Without my Keurig automatic brewer, you wouldn't be reading this post. Even so, this cocktail, dubbed THE HAND OF COUNT PETOFI, is a heady brew. Bastardly, even.

First step, get yourself a bag of Absinthe flavored ground coffee from World Market. The idea of licorice-flavored coffee might sound repellant (I certainly had reservations) but it's actually pretty tasty, as long as it's not abused. Throwing caution to the wind, I added creamer to it ... which made it taste pretty much like ordinary coffee. Cream dilutes the flavor, so this is a drink you're going to have to enjoy black, with sugar.

Next: Brew the coffee in your preferred manner. I needed a Solo Fill V1 Gold Cup, an off-brand accessory that lets Keurig V-Cup owners make any ground coffee they choose. I'm lost around a regular coffee pot.

Sweeten the coffee to taste. Depending on how you make iced coffee, this might be something you want to do while it's still hot. I preferred to extend my absinthe fetishism to this drink, and used an absinthe spoon to melt sugar over the glass after it had been chilled. I then added a dash of real absinthe for flavor, and viola! I had a drink that would rival the Pan Galactic Gargle-Blaster for flavor, if not strength. (But that can be remedied by adding more absinthe.)