Black Russian and the blackness of the coffee liqueur. Black Russian The Black Russian is a cocktail of vodka and coffee liqueur. It contains five parts vodka to two parts coffee liqueur, per IBA specified ingredients. Traditionally, the drink is made by pouring the vodka over ice cubes or cracked ice in an old-fashioned glass, followed by the coffee liqueur. This combination first appeared in 1949 and is ascribed to Gustave Tops, a Belgian barman, who created it at the Hotel Metropole in Brussels in honor of Perle Mesta, then United States Ambassador to Luxembourg. The cocktail owes its name to the
Abbey of the Holy Spirit at Monte Morrone, Sulmona Abbey of the Holy Spirit at Monte Morrone, Sulmona The Abbey of the Holy Spirit at Morrone (Italian:Abbazia di Santo Spirito al Morrone), known by various titles, is a former monastery some five kilometers outside of the town of Sulmona, at the base of Monte Morrone, in the Province of L'Aquila, region of Abruzzo, Italy. The present monastery was built in the early 18th century after an earthquake had nearly leveled the former 13th-century monastery founded by Pietro Angelerio da Isernia, subsequently elected Pope Celestine V. Pietro Angelerio had been a hermit at the Mountain, at what is now the