Hong Kong's cocktail scene gets an added buzz with a creative new batch of coffee-based drinks

Saunter up to an Italian coffee bar, and you might overhear something odd: a fellow customer ordering an espresso "corrected." What they mean is they want a splash of booze in their coffee usually grappa, but sometimes sambuca, brandy or rum.

"It's not something you do in the morning just after you wake up," says Sardinia-born, Hong Kong-based artist Alessandro Carboni. "It's great after a big meal."

It's the perfect segue into the night: two kinds of buzz playing off one another. It's the same reason espresso martinis and Irish coffees are reliable standbys at many bars. But only recently have bartenders begun to push the limits of what a coffee cocktail can be, using spirits and other ingredients to play off the complex flavours of a good roast, taking drinkers down unfamiliar paths.

Even baristas, who are normally aghast at adulterating their brews, are playing the role of mixologist. One of the latest trends to hit speciality coffee shops around the world is the espresso fizz, an improbable yet delicious mixture of coffee and tonic water that was pioneered by Koppi, an influential roaster in Sweden. In New York, a coffee cocktail trend has been quietly brewing over the past few years, with drinks such as coffee Negronis - one version adds cold brew to the standard ingredients, while others infuse the vermouth with coffee - and affogato boozed up with pisco and amaro.

There are signs the trend has washed up on these shores. "I really think a coffee cocktail can round out a cocktail menu, because it adds something that isn't fruit- or spirit-based," says Ryan Nightingale, who runs Ham & Sherry's Back Bar.

He has added the Pineapple Espresso to his menu, which is a mix of espresso, coffee liqueur, pineapple agave and bee pollen-infused tequila. "Bee pollen is a cool ingredient, and this drink came to me after sipping on lots of coffee in a cafe that also did a ton of healthy smoothies," Nightingale says.