The Coffee Cocktail does not include coffee, so I'm not sure where it gets its name--possibly from a coffee-like flavor? Perhaps a cappuccino-like appearance? According to Dale the drink comes from Jerry Thomas's The Bartender's Guide or How to Mix All Kinds of Plain and Fancy Drinks (1887). It consists of Cognac, ruby port, a little sugar and a small egg, shaken and strained, garnished with grated nutmeg.

The first Coffee Cocktail that we made did not seem to have the right color, so we made another one with a different port...

This one also didn't match the color of the Coffee Cocktail in Dale's book. Could it be that I used port labeled "aged" and "vintage" and not "ruby." The extent of what I know about port is that the latter type does not have a stated vintage, but that is about it. Would this make the difference?