Black Russian
IBA official cocktail
Black Russian.jpg
A Black Russian cocktail
Type Cocktail
Primary alcohol by volume
  • Vodka
Served On the rocks; poured over ice
Standard drinkware
Old Fashioned Glass.svg
Old Fashioned glass
IBA specified
ingredientsdagger
  • 5 cl Vodka
  • 2 cl Coffee liqueur
Preparation Pour the ingredients into an old fashioned glass filled with ice cubes. Stir gently.
Timing After dinner
dagger Black Russian recipe at International Bartenders Association

The Black Russian is a cocktail of vodka and coffee liqueur. It contains five parts vodka to two parts coffee liqueur, per IBA specified ingredients. Traditionally, the drink is made by pouring the vodka over ice cubes or cracked ice in an old-fashioned glass, followed by the coffee liqueur.

This combination first appeared in 1949 and is ascribed to Gustave Tops, a Belgian barman, who created it at the Hotel Metropole in Brussels in honor of Perle Mesta, then United States Ambassador to Luxembourg. The cocktail owes its name to the use of vodka, a typical Russian spirit, and the blackness of the coffee liqueur.

Variations