My buddy Pooch is a walking encyclopedia of criminal lore—knows his Miranda like the back of his hand, probably because he’s heard it enough times. He can spot a grifter with dummy twenties before the guy’s even opened his wallet. Pooch is a decent bartender, and a good pal to have in a knife fight. You’d think with all his time in the clink he’d be better at board games and dice, but maybe he lets me win to keep me coming around.
The other day he fixed me up the house drink, the Mug Shot—strong cardamom coffee slammed back with a shot of sambuca. He told me that back in the old days, in Sicily, you might see this flaming liqueur served with a couple of espresso beans floating on top, symbolic of health and happiness. If your waiter gave you a drink with three beans, it was the signal for a hit about to go down and you’d best settle the tab and clear out quick.
Pooch had this faraway look in his eye as he related this particular anecdote. Plip, plip. I watched the beans drop softly into my glass, and as he let the third one go . . . I dropped to the deck. Pooch was fast; they were faster.
Bullets ripped through the place, and when the smoke cleared, my friend wasn’t looking so good. With his dying breath he whispered, “Someday, someday . . .” A plea for vengeance . . . or was he calling out a last seven-letter Scrabble move . . . with nowhere to play it?
To honor Pooch’s memory, I’ve included the recipe here, but with upgrades. These days, I light my shot on fire, drop it straight in the coffee, and chug them both together quick—because you never know. And I tip my waitress 20 percent, just to hedge my bets.
(Serves 1)
Coffee grinder
Dark roast coffee or espresso beans (see Notes)
Whole cardamom seeds (see Notes)
Coffeemaker or French press
Tall, wide coffee mug
Shot glass
2 ounces sambuca
2 or 3 whole espresso beans
Match
1. In a coffee grinder, combine the coffee beans and cardamom seeds.
2. Brew the coffee in an automatic maker or French press.
3. Fill the coffee mug about three-quarters full. You’ll want to use a tall mug for this and one wide enough to drop the shot glass down into. You may want to practice this step over the sink a few times, first using only water in both your mug and shot glass, to make sure you don’t cause an overflow or other collateral damage.
4. Fill a shot glass with sambuca and whole espresso beans——two beans for friends, three for “less than friends.”
5. Light the shot on fire.
6. Grab your shot glass down low (the rim area is getting pretty hot), drop the shot glass straight down into the coffee, and drink up.
7. Look for the back door while you’re finishing this round.
I suggest brewing a 6-cup pot of coffee. It may be more than you need, but it should be enough to fill even the largest mug.
The general rule for measuring ground coffee is 2 tablespoons of ground coffee per 6 ounces (¾ cup) of water. When making my ground coffee blend, I estimate one whole cardamom seed for every two cups of brewed coffee. So for a 6-cup pot, you’d need 3 whole seeds.
