At NYC’s Experimental Cocktail Club, a Coffee Cocktail for the Cold Foam Era

Whether it’s at a local café or a big chain, cold foam has conquered coffee menus across the U.S. From Starbucks’ vanilla- or lavender-flavored versions to the fluffy sweet cream at buzzy coffee shops like Los Angeles’s Maru, coffee fans line up to get lattes and cold brews topped with a cool layer of foamy milk. (The trend took off with so much enthusiasm that some even suggest it’s gone too far.) With more and more coffee shops embracing cold foam, and the unstoppable growth of the Espresso Martini — isn’t it about time cold foam reached the coffee cocktail world?

That’s what head bartender at New York City’s Experimental Cocktail Club (ECC) Nathalie Durrieu thought while sipping on a charcoal coffee at Le Gaz, the hidden coffee counter inside cool-kid streetwear store Fugazi. Though Le Gaz discontinued this specific drink (edible products with activated charcoal are actually prohibited in NYC), Durrieu was determined to replicate the coffee’s toasty flavors in a cocktail for ECC.

Rather than make a predictable Espresso Martini riff, Durrieu wanted a drink that captured the feeling of sipping your favorite iced coffee drink. “Every New Yorker, or even every American, loves getting a little iced coffee to go,” she says. For Durrieu, the best quick treat is an iced oat milk latte.

With this in mind, Durrieu devised the recipe for the Milk Money. She starts with a vodka base — as a French bartender at a French bar, her brand of choice is Grey Goose, of course — and combines the spirit with Mr Black coffee liqueur. This mixture is then fat-washed with black sesame and charred oats. (To make the charred oats, Durrieu burns dried oats into a fine dust that reproduces that charcoal look and flavor.) She adds cold brew and oat milk, and stirs the drink to combine. While an Espresso Martini is served up to mimic the look of a classic Martini, Durrieu serves the Milk Money over ice in a tall rocks glass to resemble an iced latte instead. The final touch? A thick layer of salted, condensed cold foam and a sprinkle of Icelandic black salt.

The result is a stunning, charcoal-black drink with a heaping serving of fluffy, salty cream perfectly floated on top. The sesame and charred oat flavors bring a toasty, savory note. The crunchy chips of salt add an extra element of texture and offset the sweetness of the oat milk and cream. It’s wonderfully balanced and deceptively easy-drinking.

Though cold foam is undeniably tasty, much of what’s driving this trend is the aesthetic appeal of the layered look, and the Milk Money hones in on this. Durrieu shares that the cocktail was an immediate hit at ECC, and is by far the most ordered drink at the bar. Its popularity extends to social media as well, with many patrons posting photos of it on Instagram. Since the drink is such a fan favorite, Durrieu even worked with Grey Goose to make a creative short video about it. It follows the story of a city cow, bored by the banal nature of plain coffee and daily life, until it comes across ECC and tries the zhuzhed-up Milk Money cocktail.

“People are looking for a full experience from everything they buy including coffee and cocktails,” she says. “Taste, texture, and visuals — I think the Milk Money is the full package.”

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