The Americano, an Italian cocktail combining sweet vermouth, Campari and soda water, is endlessly malleable—just follow the blueprint of sweet, bitter and bubbly. The Americano is also the name for another Italian classic, a coffee-shop mainstay that softens the intensity of espresso with water. These two have always lived separate lives, until now: Today, a coffee cocktail that combines the two definitions is creeping onto menus across the U.S.

The repetitive naming convention might be confusing, but the charm of the hybrid drink is clear: “Bitter on bitter!” says Anthony Schmidt, whose San Diego bar J & Tony’s Discount Cured Meats and Negroni Warehouse has served a version called Kold Brew Americano for years. “The combination of cold brew and bitter liqueur with a touch of fresh lemon acts like espresso and tonic: tangy, bittersweet, refreshing,” he says, all lengthened by effervescent seltzer, “a necessary step, since we’re using such intense ingredients.”

Schmidt says he “blatantly ripped off the idea” for his Kold Brew Americano from Ricky Gomez, owner of Palomar in Portland, Oregon. While working at New Orleans restaurant Compère Lapin, Gomez served Schmidt a version with espresso instead of cold brew. Schmidt loves the sessionable nature of the low-proof classic, and merging coffee with the aperitivo was a natural fit since J & Tony’s shares a home with a coffee bar, the Invigatorium.

Takuma Watanabe, owner of New York bar Martiny’s, concurs that the two forms of Americano play well together because of their mutual bitterness. Watanabe recently opened an Italian restaurant that shares a name with its signature cocktail, a coffee-infused Americano called L’Americana. The blend of Campari, vermouth, espresso, Angostura and soda water “makes for a bitter but refreshing cocktail that can be enjoyed by itself or with food,” Watanabe says. It’s been a hit so far, and he says it pairs especially well with dishes like the restaurant’s lasagna, cutting through the richness thanks to the bitter combination of coffee and Campari.

Another coffee-infused spin on the Americano shows up at Seoul Salon, a Korean-style sool jib, or drinking establishment, in Manhattan’s Koreatown. The Seoulish Americano, which the team at Seoul Salon learned from Bar Cham in Seoul, South Korea, strays furthest from the four-part formula of other Americano hybrids and puts a high-concept spin on the cocktail. In addition to the requisite Campari and coffee, the Seoulish Americano features bianco vermouth—instead of the more common sweet vermouth—as well as kombucha, for the bubbles, and yogurt, which offers a lactic tang.

Watanabe sees the influence of another drink behind the current trend: the ubiquitous Espresso Martini. The rise of the caffeinated cocktail has inspired bartenders to explore using coffee in other cocktails. “The Americano seems like a natural progression,” he says.

For Schmidt, the coffee-infused Americano cocktail is a good gateway into the wider world of aperitivo and coffee cocktails. If someone loves an Espresso Martini or Negroni but wants to try something new, “these are sure-shot follow-up recommendations.”

As for the role of the coffee-infused Americano cocktail, he offers a practical assessment: “Aperitivo hour coincides with the last rational time to enjoy highly caffeinated beverages.”