Up until now, there was time in the day for breakfast, and then a separate time for drinks. (Okay, sometimes mimosas and Bloody Mary’s cross over into breakfast, but as far as we’re concerned, they’re a breakfast menu staple anyway.) However, bartenders are proving us wrong by creating cereal cocktails. When we first heard this, we thought it seemed interesting, but that they’d be gone in the blink of an eye. We also thought they were kind of cheesy (sorry, Tony the Tiger) and probably not that great.
It looks like we may have been wrong.
Cereal cocktails are working their way into bars in the U.S. and beyond, but believe it or not, they’re actually kind of… classy. Instead of cocktails that are just named after the cereal, your favorite breakfast food is actually used as an ingredient. For example, at Bergerac in San Francisco, they have a drink that’s made with coconut-oil-washed Campari, vermouth, and pisco, and then they infuse Froot Loops into water, whip it into foam and use it to top the drink.
Another popular way to include the cereal in a cocktail is along with milk or cream. There are two bars – PDT in New York City and the Brooklynite in San Antonio – that both have a Cereal Milk Punch. PDT’s is made with Cornflakes-infused cereal milk, corn whiskey, wheat whiskey, and honey liqueur; Brooklynite’s is made with Cinnamon Toast Crunch-infused milk, applejack and Benedictine.
At Russell House Tavern in Boston, they’re going a different route. The drinks do include the names of the cereals, but they’re part of an amazing brunch menu we’re drooling over. They have chosen to infuse various liquors with different breakfast cereals, including Applejacks, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Golden Grahams and Cocoa Puffs. If we hit this place up for brunch, we’d be all over these cocktails:
- Applejack’s Rose: Applejack’s infused Applejack, house-made Grenadine, lime juice
- Cinnamon Toast Mudslide: Cinnamon Toast Crunch infused Bacardi 8, Luxardo espresso liqueur, Irish cream
- Golden Graham Manhattan: Golden Graham infused Jack Daniels, Cocchi Vermouth di Torino, Angostura Bitters
- Cocoa Puff Smash: Cocoa Puff infused green chartreuse, Tempus Fugit Creme de Cacao, mint, lemon
We don’t know how long all of these cereal cocktails will last, but they seem to have a lot more staying power than we originally anticipated. What do you think? Cereal cocktails: Yes or no?