IBA Official Cocktail | |
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A Black Russian cocktail | |
Type | Cocktail |
Primary alcohol by volume | |
Served | On the rocks; poured over ice |
Standard drinkware | Old Fashioned glass |
IBA specified ingredients* |
|
Preparation | Pour the ingredients into an old fashioned glass filled with ice cubes. Stir gently. |
* Black Russian recipe at International Bartenders Association |
The Black Russian is a cocktail of vodka and coffee liqueur. It contains five parts vodka to two parts coffee liqueur, per IBA specified ingredients. Traditionally the drink is made by pouring the vodka over ice cubes or cracked ice in an old-fashioned glass, followed by the coffee liqueur.
This combination first appeared in 1949, and is ascribed to Gustave Tops, a Belgian barman, who created it at the Hotel Metropole in Brussels in honor of Perle Mesta, then U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg. The cocktail owes its name to the use of vodka, a typical Russian spirit, and the blackness of the coffee liqueur.