Cafe Diablo

 
The Devil's coffee is fiery, spicy and black. That's the point of the Cafe Diablo. It is a punch that serves four people and should be made in a medium sized punch bowl. Warming the brandy, curacao and Cointreau a little and lighting it on fire to scorch the cinnamon, cloves and coffee beans before adding the hot coffee will excite your guests and possibly start a fire in your dining room. But oh, well! That's the price you pay for messing with the Devil.

The other point is to achieve an orange-like aroma in a black coffee drink that is pleasing if not too strong on liqueur. You don't even need fresh fruit. The burned liqueurs do all the work.

Besides the fire issue, you may also have trouble finding four people who can agree to drink the same drink. These days, everyone wants to be the man out. Between arguments over decaf versus regular, and hot and cold punches, you're probably better off just using 1/2 oz. of brandy and 1 oz. of orange liqueurs, reduce the number of cloves and cinnamon sticks significantly, and make a single cup of coffee. Here's to drinking your hot drink alone.

•  2 oz. cognac
• 1 oz. Cointreau
• 1 oz. white curacao
• 16 oz. black coffee
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 8 cloves
• 6 coffee beans

Put all ingredients except coffee in a chafing dish and warm contents on low, direct heat. Ignite (and really keep your face and limbs away from the dish. This stuff burns brightly with intense heat. Have a long spoon for stirring and hot coffee at the ready to extinguish the flames.) Add coffee and stir until the flames are out. Pour into warm coffee mugs. Serves four.