Season Koto

Ten drinks for your Koto

The Koto holds 165ml; the Koto 220 holds 220ml. Both are sized for drinks that are short, strong and worth paying attention to, and everything here is scaled to them - where two quantities are given, the first is for the Koto, the second for the Koto 220. Nothing needs equipment beyond a small pan and a way of making decent coffee.

Coffee

The proper cortado (and the proper flat white)

The Koto is a cortado cup; the Koto 220 is a flat white cup. Same lesson either way - a double espresso with steamed milk, in a ratio that softens the coffee without burying it. If your flat whites taste of warm milk, this is the fix.

For one cup

Double espresso (about 60ml)
75ml / 130ml whole milk

Steam or gently heat the milk to about 60°C - hot to the touch, nowhere near boiling. You want it silky, with barely any foam. Pour the espresso into the cup, then the milk, holding back the foam with a spoon. That's it. The ratio does the work.

Cardamom coffee

How coffee is drunk across much of the Middle East, and the easiest upgrade in this list. The trick is spicing the grounds, not the cup - the oils infuse as it brews.

For one cup

Coffee for one strong cup, ground
1 cardamom pod

Crush the pod, husk and all, and add it to the grounds before you brew - cafetière, moka pot, whatever you use. Brew as normal. Sugar if you like it; it takes sweetness well.

Café de olla

Mexican spiced coffee, traditionally brewed in a clay pot with raw cane sugar. Dark brown sugar and a small pan get you almost all the way there.

For one cup

175ml / 230ml water
1 tbsp ground coffee
1 tsp / 1 heaped tsp dark brown sugar
Half a cinnamon stick
A strip of orange peel

Put the water, sugar, cinnamon and peel in a small pan and simmer for 5 minutes. Take it off the heat, stir in the coffee, cover, and leave for 4 minutes. Strain into the cup. The point is steeping the coffee in spiced water, not dusting cinnamon on top afterwards - the difference is obvious.

Boozy coffee

Irish coffee, done properly

Most Irish coffees fail at the cream. It shouldn't be squirted, spooned or stirred in - it's floated, so you drink hot sweet coffee through cold cream. Get the float right and everything else is easy.

For one cup

100ml / 140ml hot, strong coffee
25ml Irish whiskey
1 tsp demerara sugar
30ml / 40ml double cream

Whip the cream only until it thickens slightly - it should still just pour. Stir the sugar and whiskey into the hot coffee until the sugar dissolves (this matters: sugar helps the cream sit). Then pour the cream slowly over the back of a teaspoon held at the surface. Don't stir. Drink through it.

Caffè corretto

Italian for "corrected coffee" - an espresso put right with a small measure of something. In Italy it's usually grappa; amaretto is gentler and easier to love.

For one cup

Double espresso
15ml amaretto

Pour the amaretto into the espresso. The restraint is the recipe - 15ml lifts the coffee, 30ml drowns it.

Carajillo

Spain's answer to the corretto, and having a moment in London's bars. Spirit first, coffee over - the layers matter.

For one cup

25ml brandy
Double espresso
1 tsp sugar, optional

Warm the brandy gently in the cup (30 seconds sat in hot water does it), then pour the hot espresso over. The warm spirit rises through the coffee as you drink. Sugar if you want it closer to the Spanish original.

Boozy hot cocktails

Boozy masala chai

Proper chai means whole spices simmered before the tea goes anywhere near the pan. The rum was our idea, but it behaves as if it was always meant to be there.

For one cup

80ml / 110ml water
80ml / 110ml whole milk
1 black tea bag, or 1 tsp loose black tea
2 cardamom pods, crushed
2 cloves
Half a cinnamon stick
2 slices fresh ginger
2 black peppercorns
1-2 tsp sugar
25ml dark rum

Simmer the spices in the water for 5 minutes. Add the milk, tea and sugar, and simmer 2 minutes more. Take off the heat, stir in the rum, strain into the cup. The pepper is not a typo - it's what makes chai taste like chai.

Hot chocolate shot with chilli and tequila

Hot chocolate as Mexico has made it for centuries - real chocolate, cinnamon, and just enough chilli to warm the back of the throat. A short serve, because it's rich.

For one cup

110ml / 150ml whole milk
30g / 40g dark chocolate (70%), chopped
Pinch of ground cinnamon
Small pinch of chilli powder or cayenne
25ml tequila (reposado if you have it)

Heat the milk in a small pan until steaming. Take off the heat, add the chocolate, cinnamon and chilli, and whisk until smooth. Stir in the tequila and pour. The chilli should be warmth, not heat - if you can name the burn, you've used too much.

Hot chocolate shot with chilli and tequila in a Season Koto cup

Bombardino

What Italians drink halfway up a mountain: advocaat and brandy, hot, under cream. Sounds improbable, tastes like warm zabaglione, costs about the same as a bag of flour to make.

For one cup

80ml / 105ml advocaat
40ml / 55ml brandy
Whipped cream
Pinch of ground cinnamon

Warm the advocaat and brandy together in a small pan over a low heat, stirring - hot, never boiling, or the egg splits. Pour into the cup, top with a spoonful of whipped cream and dust with cinnamon.

Yuzu and honey toddy

The toddy, sharpened. Yuzu tastes like lemon crossed with mandarin and something you can't quite place - and small bottles of the juice are now in most big supermarkets.

For one cup

25ml whisky
2 tsp yuzu juice (or 1 tbsp lemon juice with a squeeze of clementine)
2 tsp honey
110ml / 160ml hot water

Put the whisky, yuzu and honey in the cup, then top with water that's hot but off the boil - boiling water flattens the honey and burns off the aroma you paid for. Stir until the honey dissolves.