Black Russian

A Black Russian is a variation on the White Russian that simply omits the milk. With only two ingredients, this cocktail couldn't be easier to make, and boy does it have a kick! Enjoy these with caution as they have plenty of booze.

Although the White Russian is a great cocktail, the Black Russian may be a little bit easier to enjoy if you can't take too much milk.

Total Time 3

Servings 1 cocktail

Ingredients

60 mL Vodka
30 mL Kahlúa

Instructions

Combine everything in a mixing glass with ice. Stir.
Strain into a rocks glass with fresh ice.
Enjoy.

Our Review of the Black Russian

I’ll start this by saying I never liked White Russians so I’ve avoided the Black Russian until I had to try one for this review. I was both pleasantly surprised but also not too wowed by the Black Russian.

Sure, the Black Russian is an easy cocktail to make at home with ingredients you have on hand, but it’s not really doing much, is it? Kahlua is pretty nice, but the vodka is just there to add more alcohol. That’s it, that’s the cocktail! Maybe I’m coming off as bit negative here though, because there are plenty of great two ingredient cocktails out there. Things like the Gin and Tonic or the Cuba Libre for example. But these simple two ingredient cocktail change a lot simply by changing the gin or the rum. The Black Russian, on the other hand, can’t really be changed. Theoretically a good vodka shouldn’t have a flavour, and Kahlua is Kahlua… It has some great coffee flavours of course, but that’s all the Black Russian is.

On the positive side, if you like Kahlua but feel like the flavour is too much, diluting it with vodka is a great choice! And there’s not much to not like about Kahlua, so why not enjoy it with the extra added kick of vodka?

So as simple cocktails go, there’s actually no much wrong with the Black Russian. I just think there are other simple and easy cocktail recipes out there that are a lot more interesting and a lot more fun, especially if you’re only just getting started with cocktail making.

6/10

Review by Bobby

Here’s a few more cocktail recipes for you

You may have noticed we have quite a few cocktail recipes on this website! Whether you’re just browsing cocktails or want to see what you can make through our cocktail builder, we have something for you. Take a look at some site sections below.

Top 10 Vodka cocktail recipes: here’s our ten favourite Vodka cocktail recipes. We hope you like them as much as we do!

Top 15 three ingredient cocktails: the Black Russian is a pretty easy cocktail to make. It only has two ingredients! If you’re after other easy ones, take a look.

All Vodka cocktail recipes: if you just want to browse, here’s every cocktail recipes we have that has Vodka in it.

All three ingredient cocktail recipes: or if you want to browse even more, here’s the easy ones for you.