The Best Coffee Beans For Infusing Bourbon

Bourbon's rich and vibrant tasting notes — from vanilla and caramel to nuts and smoke — overlap with the tasting notes in coffee or the ingredients we use to complement its robust flavors. Of course, coffee and bourbon are often blended in cocktails like Kentucky coffee or a coffee-infused old fashioned, but you can take the pairing to the next level with coffee infused bourbon.

We've consulted an expert on the subject; Anton Kinloch is a bartender at Lone Wolf and a participant in New York Bartender Week showcasing some of New York's best bars and bartenders. He gave Tasting Table useful advice on the best coffee beans for infusing bourbon as well as tips on how to infuse them. "Coffee & bourbon is a classic pairing and I've found that lightly roasted whole beans are significantly better for infusions rather than dark roast which can easily overpower the whiskey."

As their names imply, light and dark roast coffees differ in how long the beans are roasted, with dark roasts reaching higher temperatures and a darker hue. A dark roast also has a more robust taste, while light roasts are subtler and lighter in flavor and mouthfeel. For recommendations, we have a list of 14 barista recommended light roast coffee brands that'll make great options for a balanced coffee infusion.

Light roast coffee beans are best suited to complement the tasting notes in bourbon without stealing the spotlight. A homemade spirit infusion is a simple, hands-off process. You can infuse bourbon with whole coffee beans by pouring your bourbon over the coffee beans, sealing the container, and letting them sit for up to 24 hours.

Kinloch has even more useful tips to optimize flavor and efficiency. "Starting with a higher ABV bourbon, 45% (90-proof) or higher will help in the infusion process over several days. Similarly, we've found that the iSi [whipper] is also great for infusing coffee beans into whiskey when the beans are slightly warmed up in a pan." You can grab your whipper from Otis Classic on Amazon.

A high ABV aids in a more efficient and thorough extraction of the flavor notes in coffee because it's better at dissolving other substances. A high-proof bourbon will intensify those subtle light roast coffee notes so that they won't be lost in the final product. Warming the beans up in a pan also makes a lot of sense as heat will bloom the flavors of the coffee beans and cause them to release their flavorful oils. You can add the warmed beans to the iSi canister along with bourbon, using an ICO nitrous oxide cartridge to agitate the liquid, thereby catalyzing the infusion. Using a whipped cream maker is a form of rapid infusion that both reduces infusion times and more accurately extracts the desired coffee tasting notes.