Revolver Cocktail Recipe

The Revolver is a modern classic cocktail that could be interpreted as something of a “whiskey Espresso Martini,” or perhaps more accurately, an Espresso Manhattan. The drink contains bourbon, coffee liqueur, and orange bitters, and is commonly garnished with a flamed orange peel.

The cocktail is the creation of bar veteran Jon Santer, who developed the Revolver in San Francisco in the early 2000s. The drink debuted at Bruno’s, a now closed nightclub in San Francisco’s Mission District, before Santer brought it to Bourbon & Branch, the famed cocktail lounge in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood that helped popularize the Prohibition-era vibes of the craft cocktail revival. The drink earned its name from its use of Bulleit Bourbon, a whiskey that was then gaining traction nationwide and had become a fixture of higher-end cocktail bars.

Though one-off cocktails come and go regularly throughout the bar industry, the Revolver found staying power through its three-ingredient simplicity, accessible flavor profile, and flair of showmanship in its flamed garnish presentation. Though these are all common elements in the modern bar scene, it embodied the West Coast style of drink making during the craft cocktail revival of the early 2000s, and became a must-know drink for bartenders across the country.

Why the Revolver still works

The Revolver takes a back-to-basics approach to cocktail modification — swap out a single ingredient with something complimentary, and don’t overcomplicate things. In this case, it uses the template of a classic Manhattan, but rather than sweet vermouth, it opts for coffee liqueur to provide sweetness and depth. Similarly, the choice of Bulleit bourbon in Santer’s original version, which has a higher amount of rye in its mash compared to other popular bourbons, pays homage to the Manhattan’s traditional base of spicy rye whiskey. 

Orange bitters round out the combination as a milder choice over the more omnipresent (and overpowering) Angostura bitters, and act as a compliment to the flamed orange peel garnish — you perceive the orange aromas via garnish with your nose but taste them primarily through the bitters.

About that garnish: Flamed orange peels have a longstanding place in cocktails, though can also be overused as a cheap (and effective) trick to make a drink seem more complicated than it is. However, flamed garnish does serve a purpose, and its use in The Revolver is a perfect example. The more subtle roasted notes of coffee can be lost during the process of converting it to a sweetened liqueur, so here, the burnt citrus oils of the flamed orange peel work to reintroduce and reinforce the smokier elements of coffee, making it a trick for the eyes and the senses.