Midnight Amber Glow

 The midnight amber glow cocktail is inspired by this Bath and Body Works fragrance:

About the fragrance

I was gifted this fragrance for my birthday in 2023. It is currently unavailable online, but it will hopefully be back at some point.

The scent notes listed for this fragrance are:

Smooth amber

Caramel latte

Vanilla bourbon

Designing the cocktail

I used half and half for the mixer to represent the texture of a latte. I used equal parts caramel vodka and Kahlua to capture the caramel latte flavor. I used Jim Beam brand vanilla bourbon, just as I used in my Magic In The Air cocktail. I also added vanilla simple syrup for additional flavor and sweetness. I didn't know how to approximate the amber note, so I left that out.

Recipe

1 oz Kahlua

1 oz caramel vodka

½ oz vanilla bourbon

½ oz vanilla simple syrup

6 oz half and half

Caramel sauce

Combine Kahlua, caramel vodka, vanilla bourbon, vanilla simple syrup, and half and half in a glass or cocktail shaker. Drizzle the inside of two cocktail glasses with caramel sauce. Transfer mixture to cocktail glasses. For a non-alcoholic version, omit the Kahlua, caramel vodka, and vanilla bourbon. Add coffee (decaffeinated if you don't want caffeine.)

The finished cocktail

 

As expected, I enjoyed this cocktail. It was very sweet and would definitely be considered a dessert cocktail. The coffee, caramel, and vanilla flavors were all apparent, with none overpowering the others. The bourbon was harder to detect, but that was not surprising as I added less vanilla bourbon than the other ingredients. My one complaint would be that the cocktail did not accurately portray the fragrance, as the amber note is quite prominent in the latter. I would recommend this cocktail to any sweet tooth who enjoys rich cocktails and caramel lattes.