(chill music and ice clinking)
- Hey, guys.
Ales from European Coffee Trip,
and this is espresso and tonic
It's probably the most famous coffee drink
during the summer,
and we decided we need to know more,
so we traveled to Prague
to visit our friends from Coffee Source
and to ask them what are the secrets
to make a really tasty espresso and tonic?
(chill music)
- Coffee and tonic.
It's amazing, refreshing drink at first,
so it's perfect in the summer
because you get beautiful bitter flavors
from tonic and espresso,
which mix quite nicely,
and they're accompanied by
nice acidity and sweetness.
The important strategy is to have two
very good ingredients.
So, the right coffee
and a high quality tonic
because it tastes much better
if you prepare it from specialty coffee
or coffee that's, let say,
lighter roast, medium roast,
because darker roasts,
like commercial roasted coffees
are really bitter
and in combination with the tonic,
the bitterness is really,
really expressive.
(coffee mixing)
Then, is the question
of the coffee itself.
We really enjoy African,
fruity roast coffee,
so let's say Burundi,
Ethiopian, and Kenya.
They boost the acidity of the drink
and make it really refreshing,
but also, we did some experiment
with natural coffees.
For the natural coffees
you can try also Ethiopian,
but you can try some
funky tasting coffees,
let's say, we in our cafe,
we make the cold brew from India,
which tastes like chocolate liqueur
and it's super sweet,
and it gives amazing
aromatics to the drink.
So first of all,
why all the kids,
we all hated tonic, right?
Because it's very bitter.
So, it's a bitter drink,
lots of bubbles,
it's really, really fizzy,
unfortunately, most of
the commercial tonics
are super sweet.
They put so much sugar in it.
So, that's why today
we are using more craft tonics, let's say,
which are containing less sugar
and much more quinine.
Coffee tonic should be a refreshing drink,
so to make it refreshing,
it's nice to have it cold.
The best thing is to have a glass,
the volume is depending on you,
let's say around 150 milliliters
for liquid, plus ice.
So, you stack the ice in the glass
so it's full of ice,
because we want it as cool as possible.
Then, use around 100, 150
milliliters of the tonic,
and you top it up with a cold brew.
The ratio is depending
on how much coffee flavor you like.
It can be made like a
refreshing tonic drink,
and it can be made
more like a coffee drink,
where you actually feel
the flavor of the coffee.
So to make it easy,
for 100 milliliters, or
100 grams for a tonic,
you can use a double espresso,
which would be around 40 grams,
40 milliliters of liquid,
and if you wanna make it with cold brew,
for 100 milliliters of tonic
you can use 60 milliliters of concentrate,
of cold brew concentrate.
So, espresso tonic, cold brew tonic.
- [Ales] So, what's the main difference,
if you look at it?
- Just look at it.
(laughing)
No, this time will be
definitely more refreshing
and the flavor will be more juicy
and you will feel more
of the tonic quality,
and also the coffee.
This is more full
and the coffee flavor is heavier.
The espresso makes it look
a bit more muddy and blurry.
It doesn't influence the
taste in a negative way,
it just look different.
You get the cream there,
and also, it's warm,
so it's melting the ice quicker,
but you get much more intense taste
from espresso than cold brew,
so that's a big advantage.
(upbeat music)
- Okay, so we have two
espresso and tonics,
so now we're ready.
So, let's taste it together with Tomo.
- First one, classic,
really strong tonic from Switzerland.
Let's try.
(chill music)
Definitely much more coffee
flavor than cold brew,
and a really refreshing,
bitter, strong tonic.
- Yeah.
I think that's what I would most call
as espresso and tonic,
but yeah, it's more heavy.
(chill music)
- The second one is fancy.
It's really nice before it's mixed
because it's got a pinky color.
That's from hibiscus.
So again, some floral tonic.
I prefer this much
a bit more with cold brew
because espresso is really heavy.
- So, the conclusion would be
for the espresso,
you want a little bit stronger tonic?
Like stronger taste?
- Yeah.
Strong tonic.
And the drink, as you can feel,
it's much more heavy and fuller.
So, for us here,
we prefer cold brew
in all the tonics
that you can imagine
because it's a much fresher drink
than when you use espresso.
(upbeat music)
So, this is Imperial Botanical tonic.
They add little flower
and it makes it really floral
and it's super interesting.
- Elder flowers.
Exactly.
(laughing)
- All right, the second,
it's really cool because it's
actually fake coffee tonic.
It's not from the tonic,
but it's from grapefruit soda,
and it almost tastes like a tonic
because the grapefruit
creates nice bitterness.
So, let's try if it works.
Very nice balance.
This grapefruit soda goes so well
with the fruity Burundi,
where it's like a lot of grapefruit,
so it matches perfectly.
Slightly less bitterness
than the tonic water.
- Okay, I like this better.
(chill music)
- It's a classic bar question.
The best ice is the one that's melting
as slow as possible.
So, as big cubes as possible
so they are melting down slowly
and the drink is not watery,
and as much ice as
possible into the glass.
So, it's not melting quickly
and it's keeping the drink cold.
The best way is to mix it
if you want to enjoy the balance,
the connection between
the tonic and the coffee,
but to make it look sexy,
it's definitely nice to put ice,
tonic, and top it up
slowly with the coffee
that you pour on the ice,
so it doesn't go down through the liquid.
I think it's nice
to use a strong glass
with a thick wall,
so it's keeping the temperature stable,
and definitely glass so
we can see the beauty,
how it's divided and
then connected together.
(chill music)
