That’s what a sign in Matt Bjurman’s Milan coffeehouse advertised. I ordered one, more to honor the thought that goes into creating a house special than in hopes of discovering a great new thing.
But it was a great new thing. Traffic was slow that morning at the Milan Coffee Works, so Bjurman passed it to me before he added the usual shot of vanilla syrup so I’d get the full taste of the bourbon. “I usually drink my coffee black,” he remarked, “but this is so intense I have to drink this with milk.”
Take a hit of this stuff, and you’ll wonder if it’s legal to serve without a liquor license. The coffee was perfumed throughout with toasty toffee-bourbon flavor. I later tried it with the added vanilla and it’s just as good, especially if you take your coffee with sugar, but the vanilla masks the bourbon.
Bjurman ages green coffee beans in oak barrels that have only recently been drained of very fine small-batch bourbon. He sources them from Tippins Market in Saline, which gets them from distilleries participating in its private-label bourbon program. Dominic Aprea, Tippins’ beverage manager, drives down to Kentucky to collect the barrels as soon as they’re emptied. Within twenty-four hours they’re filled with beans, which then sit there soaking up flavor for four to six weeks. Bjurman says that the first time he tried roasting barrel-aged beans, he was afraid his roaster might explode from the fumes. He uses each barrel only once, but sometimes passes them on to Original Gravity Brewing Company next door, where they infuse beer with the mingled flavors of bourbon and coffee.
Bjurman didn’t invent this idea–barrel aging is a hot trend out in the Seattle area, he says, and even Starbucks is debuting a version of barrel-aged coffee there. But Milan Coffee Works is the first roastery in this area to try it.
Soon Ann Arborites will not have to go all the way to Milan to get a bourbon latte. Bjurman will be selling them at his new Coffee Works outpost on Packard (Marketplace Changes, p. 67). He and Aprea also sell barrel-aged beans under the label Barrel Guys.
Milan Coffee Works, 802 County St., Milan. 657-9899. Wed.-Fri. 7 a.m.-2 p.m., Sat. 8 a.m.-2 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Closed Mon. & Tues. milancoffeeworks.com
