East-African Spritz Recipe

This year has been full of fantastically sweet Ethiopian and Rwandan coffees with pronounced citric acidity. With the weather quickly warming up, margaritas have been on our minds. We thought the sweet citrus of this Rwandan coffee which we just selected for Craft Coffee's next Tasting Box would make an excellent stand-in for the lime in a classic margarita. However, the tequila base in our initial experiments proved too overpowering, so we decided to switch to a golden rum that would blend well with the exaggerated caramel and lemon notes.

The resulting cocktail is somewhat of a hybrid: the sweet, juicy combination of Detour’s Rwandan coffee with the aged rum is reminiscent of a classic daiquiri, while the delicate, sparkling acidity pairs well with the arancello and orange zest, capturing a spritzer's refreshing balance. Because this is a relatively low-alcohol cocktail designed to be consumed in quantity at brunch or on a summer's day, we felt that East-African Spritz — referring to the growing region of the coffee — was the most appropriate name.