What are your thoughts or suggestions for a strong "breakfast" cocktail?

tuftedcheek
2023-06-24T20:03:15Z

Years ago, circa 2017, I spent a few weeks in Portland, OR for work. Naturally, I ended up at Jeffrey Morgenthaler's Clyde Common regularly. On one of the weekends, I went to Common for brunch and they served a "breakfast" cocktail in glass coke bottles. From memory it was sweet, earthy, rich with slight chocolate hints, mildly carbonated, and strong. It was totally different from most breakfast cocktails that opt for bright and citrus flavors (i.e. mimosas, bloody Marys) and I think the carbonation definitely helped soften the otherwise heavy design of this drink.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the foresight to ask about the cocktail's construction and Common closed shortly after. Recently, I've been trying to recreate it from memory, or more generously, recreate the idea of it (short of Morgenthaler himself identifying the cocktail, there's no way I'll be able to reproduce it). My best guess is that he made something close to a black Russian and ran it through a carbonator.

Here are my thoughts to riff off of that type of drink for a strong breakfast cocktail:
2 oz Bourbon, 1 oz Mr. Black, .5 oz Amaretto, .5 oz Maple Syrup, topped with carbonated water, built neat in a highball glass. I'm still tweaking the proportions, but given that Mr. Black is less sweet than other coffee liqueurs, and considering the dilution from carbonated water, I think a half/half mix of Amaretto and Maple Syrup is sweet without being cloying. I also went with Amaretto instead of another syrup like orgeat to keep the alcohol content higher.

Any thoughts? Other ideas in a similar vein?

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