A sip of coffee and a sudden memory: the Greek church of my hometown, sometime close to my sixteenth birthday. The liturgy ends, the crowd moves to the social hall; I stand with my birdlike grandmother in a line that rattles with talk from the old country. We reach the paper-covered folding table where men are selling small shots of Metaxa and Styrofoam cups of coffee from a large urn with a single Cyclops eye, bright orange. My grandmother asks for two of each, pays and slips the brandy straight into her coffee, nodding for me to do the same.

Though simple, my grandmother's quiet after-church cocktail was so harmonious in taste as to seem practically divine. But there are many other such blends, often with far more formal recipes that illuminate how well coffee and alcohol complement each other. Both drinks contain intense, highly concentrated flavors, though in different signatures. Where strong coffee is earthy and low, alcohol is bright and uplifting in taste, playing the high flute harmony to java's deep bassoon. Both drinks strike a similar balance between acid and base, resting fairly close to neutral pH, usually just on the side of the weak acids. And of course, both great coffee and great spirits are cherished by their fans.

The "training center" Web site of Italy's Lavazza coffee company contains recipes for a half-dozen coffee-and-alcohol blends. Perhaps the best known of these is the classic Irish coffee, a mix of java and Irish whiskey topped with sweetened whipped cream. Decent Irish coffee can be made with filter coffee, instant, Turkish or espresso, though the better the java, the better the drink will be. And though any type of Irish whiskey will do, I am partial to Jameson, and in large amounts.

Lavazza also has a recipe for café Brulot, a drink in which cinnamon, cloves, sugar, and orange and lemon peels are flambéed in a saucepan with cognac which is then filtered and added to strong coffee, then topped with whipped cream. Also intriguing is the ciao Turin, a mix of espresso, cognac and rum in equal portions, scented with lemon peel and cloves.

Here in Central Europe, something called Algerian coffee — alzírská káva — is occasionally found in cafés and bars. Strangely, it is made with the egg liqueur commonly known as advocaat in the West, called vajecny´ likér in Czech. Is egg liqueur Algerian? Most cocktail experts would consider it Dutch, though it is made across Europe, if not in the Maghreb. In any case, the Czech Algerian is much like an Irish coffee, a simple mix of liqueur, coffee and whipped cream, although the particularly sticky, thick, puddinglike taste of advocaat makes the Algerian heavier and sweeter, more of a dessert and less of a cocktail.