Another nice quick recipe post for all of you!   This was inspired by something called “Italian Coffee” at a local Italian restaurant.  It was rather tasty and I wanted to try to duplicate it.

It combines the sweetness of hot coco, the warm bitters of coffee, along with Armeretto and Kahlua.  All you need is a handful of ingredients and a french press.

Wonderful for all those cold winter evenings.

This has the best of all the hot drink worlds.  The traditional coffee flavor is front and present, which is great for an after dinner drink.  You get a nice dark coco flavor from the chocolate.  The sweetness comes from the dissolved marshmallows.  And the creaminess from the Half and Half.  And of course the warmth from the almond and coffee alcohols.

The order this is done unlike some drinks does matter.  You need to have the marshmallows in while it’s hot to make sure they dissolve, and the alcohol done right at the end to make sure you don’t evaporate it out.  You need to make sure to use a good dark hot coco mix, cause regular hot chocolate just doesn’t pair right with coffee.  But done right and it becomes a lovely drink.

Ingredients

• 28 oz boiling water
• 4 packets dark coco hot chocolate
• 4 “servings” coffee (will vary depending on coffee)
• Dash of salt
• 8 large marshmallows (split in half or smaller pieces)
• 8 oz half and half
• 4 oz Armeretto
• 4 oz Kahlua
• Whipped cream (or more marshmallows)

Directions

1. Place the coffee beans, hot chocolate, dash of salt, and marshmallows into the French press.
2. Pour in water and stir until the marshmallows are completely dissolved. (should take roughly 2 minutes)
3. Let sit for 3 minutes, letting the coffee brew.
4. Pour in the Half & Half.  Stir
5. Pour in the Armeretto & Kahlua.  Stir.
6. Press the French press plunger down.
7. Pour into 4 coffee cups.  Top with whipped cream (as they did in the restaurant) or just more marshmallows

Serves 4

(and yes I know the picture above is technically the hot coco I made earlier in the day, but it looks so similar, with the same glasses and french press… and Amanda already had the picture taken…)