Coffee Liqueur

Some drinks have a winter “feel” to me. Red wine, dark beers, Scotch, any warm drink or rich drink just sounds right when it’s chilly out. So give me your Grasshoppers, your Hot Toddies, your White Russians! Wait… scratch that last one, we are out of Kahlua.

So let’s make some! It turns out it isn’t that difficult or time consuming to make a coffee liqueur. Is it a dupe of Kahlua? Nope. It’s thinner and I’m sure they have some proprietary secrets that give Kahlua a little something different. Is this delicious and sip-able/mixable? Yes.

I read a few tips and tricks and adjusted this recipe accordingly. This includes my changes:

COFFEE LIQUEUR

1/4 cup fine ground espresso

1 3/4 cups water (divided)

1 cup turbinado sugar

1 1/2 cups light rum

1 vanilla bean

Combine the 1/4 cup ground coffee with 1 1/4 cups filtered water. Let that cold brew in the fridge for 12-24 hours. Strain through a coffee filter.

Use a jar you don’t mind getting stinky with coffee. I don't have a picture of the coffee cold brewing, but I'm pretty sure you can imagine what a jar full of coffee grounds and water looks like. (Incidentally, like something you'd find in a gutter). Here it is strained:

Make a rich simple syrup by combining 1/2 cup filtered water and 1 cup raw or turbinado sugar. Heat until combined. Use a quart jar for the final stage.

Once the simple syrup is cool, add the coffee, split vanilla bean and rum. I ended up using 4oz dark rum, 4oz gold rum and 4oz light rum. This was not a plan, I just kept running out!

Let that mingle for around 3 days. At that point, taste it and if you think it’s ready, strain and bottle. I bet this could live outside of the fridge, but it will last longer inside.

I poured the liqueur into an Svedka vodka bottle I had on hand for final storage. It made enough to fill the bottle, plus a drink for tasting. Around 27oz.