Homemade Coffee Liqueur

[Carolyn Tillie]

In my early 20s, I really like Kahlua-based drinks; Black Russians, White Russians, coffee & Kahlua...

Now I am finding it too sickly sweet but I miss the joy of coffee-flavored drinks. I did find a small-produced cognac-based coffee liqueur (name escapes me) that was fabulous, but only sold in a beautiful 375-sized, tall frosted brown bottle bottle.

I am not familiar with Tia Maria (prolly should just go out and buy a bottle, huh?) so I am unsure how high it is on the sweet scale, but it got me wondering how hard it would be to fashion my own coffee liqueur.

A quick search brought me to the About Pages with a handful of recipes. But I figure I would start with the knowledgeable drinkers around here. Find fault or promise in any of the linked recipes -- or a better one?

[The Old Foodie]

I dont think I'd qualify as a "knowledgeable drinker" but I have made a coffee-orange liqueur for Christmas presents in the past.

I orange, pricked all over with a fine skewer or needle

40-50 coffee beans and the same number of teaspoons of sugar

2 vanilla pods

Place in a large jar and pour over enough vodka to cover, screw on the lid and leave for a month or so. You need to gently shake or stir it a few times at first to dissolve the sugar. When it is ready, strain it off and re-bottle (or drink).

I guess you could reduce the sugar if this is too sweet. And I guess it would work fine with gin or brandy.

There is a "Mock Kahlua" recipe that pops up from time to time, which uses instant coffee and vanilla essence and sugar - which sounds pretty awful to me!

Edited October 7, 2006 by The Old Foodie (log)

[KatieLoeb]

Carolyn:

Try the Starbucks Coffee Liqueur - it tastes more like espresso and less sweet than Kahlua. More bittersweet edge to it, IMO. I think it might be more to your taste.

It makes a killer Black Russian with vanilla vodka, too. Often my choice for a dessert drink/nightcap.

[Carolyn Tillie]

Thanks to the both of you! I'm fully into making my own (I've got beers, meads, and vin de noix going right now) and for trying the Starbucks stuff in the meantime!

[tino27]

Friends of mine make their own "Kahlua" ... here is their recipe.

3 cups sugar

3 cups water

10 tablespoons vanilla

10 tablespoons instant coffee

bring to a boil...

simmer 1 hour...

let set for 24 hrs...

Add: 10 tablespoons vanilla

1/5 Vodka

Stir and pour into bottles

I've never made it myself, but I've tasted theirs ... it's pretty good, actually. I definitely wouldn't use top shelf vodka, but a nice triple filtered mid-level brand like Burnett's would make a good candidate.

[Kerry Beal]

All the recipes I can find in my liqueur cookbooks call for large amounts of sugar. I'd probably just try cutting the sugar down to about 1/4 of that called for and see how it turns out. Aging liqueurs seems to be the most important step in getting great flavour.

[KatieLoeb]

Try subbing instant espresso for instant coffee in any recipe for homemade coffee liqueur that calls for a powdered instant. It ought to make it taste better and more bitter/less sweet, which I believe would be more to your taste.

[The Old Foodie]

There are a lot of late 19th century recipes "to imitate" beverages in <a href = "http://pds.harvard.edu:8080/pdx/servlet/pds?op=f&id=2574051&n=1&s=4">Six Hundred Receipts</a>.

Warning! Some of the receipts are for human and animal remedies! Also the page images might be a bit slow to load, depending on your connection. You can choose to "view text" but the OCR is not great.

The drinks are under the headings Brandy, Cider, Cordials, Wines, Whiskey.

There might be some good ideas there, but I haven't looked in any depth.

Janet

[annecros]

This is really interesting, and I do my own coffee liquor that other's in the family beg to be offered a bottle.

Steep: 750 ml Everclear (or the highest proof grain alcohol that you can obtain) WHOLE coffee beans, a generous chunk of vanilla bean - Minimum of a week if you are in a hurry, but two weeks if you want to do it right. If you like the bitterness of Starbuck's espresso, then by all means use their espresso beans. The best results that I have personally had were using their Guatamala Antigua and most especially their Yukon whole beans.The bit of the vanilla bean puts the smoothness in, without adding any sweetness, to my taste buds. Your milage may vary, but I think that this is the secret.

Simple Syrup: I make mine with double strength coffee and sugar, one to one, rather than going the instant coffee route (one cup wet measure coffee, one cup dry measure sugar, bring to a boil, turn off and let cool). I brew the coffee from the same type of bean I have steeped. How much you make and cut the steeped solution is the ticket.

Final bottling:

Personally, and for the tastes of the people I prepare this for, they like it on the sweet side. So I do 4 cups of double strength coffee and 4 cups of sugar, cool it, and then combine with another 750 ml of 80 proof vodka, and the strained and filtered steeped solution. If I wanted a less sweet version, I would start with 1 cup of double strength coffee and 1 cup of sugar, omit the vodka, combine it directly with the steeped solution, and work up to my desired sweetness from there after it has had at least a week to combine and mellow. You can always add more sugar, but it is difficult to take it out without adding more booze or water or both. You can always do a 1 cup to 1 cup double strength coffee and sugar solution at a time. I would not add more booze until you have two cups of simple syrup to the solution. The only trick here is to remember that alcohol evaporates every time it is exposed to air.

My two cents, for what it is worth. And good luck in your quest.

I'm kind of picky about my coffee flavor. I want it strong, but not bitter.

[dansch]

I'm a huge coffee fan (roast my own beans, worked as a barista for years, etc.), but like my coffee sans-sugar. So, for me, all of the coffee liqeurs I've tasted are just too sweet ... until I was in Costa Rica and tried Cafe Brit's Liqueur. It's still sweet mind you, just not sickly sweet. Unfortunately, we can't get it here in Virginia, and I haven't checked out-of-state booze shops while traveling. Anyway, keep an eye out for it.

-Dan

[Jean Blanchard]

I also used to like Kahlua based drinks and outgrew them. However, I had several bottles from my yearly trips to Mexico that I felt obliged to use. I reduced it to syrupy consistency and poured over ice cream...yum. Sorry though, no recipes to make your own liqueur.

[KatieLoeb]

Carolyn:

I tasted something this evening that made me think of you and search out this thread. It's an Italian Espresso liqueur called Borghetti Liquore Caffe. It's even more bittersweet than the Starbucks. Delicious if you can find it. I had a sample bottle of it that a vendor had given me to play with and it took me a while to break it out and experiment. It was delicious mixed with Voyant Chai liqueur and a little vodka as a dessert drink and I'm enjoying a little bit now mixed into a Black Russian as a nightcap. Quite tasty and I think exactly what you were looking for.

[TBoner]

This is really interesting, and I do my own coffee liquor that other's in the family beg to be offered a bottle.

Steep: 750 ml Everclear (or the highest proof grain alcohol that you can obtain) WHOLE coffee beans, a generous chunk of vanilla bean - Minimum of a week if you are in a hurry, but two weeks if you want to do it right. If you like the bitterness of Starbuck's espresso, then by all means use their espresso beans. The best results that I have personally had were using their Guatamala Antigua and most especially their Yukon whole beans.The bit of the vanilla bean puts the smoothness in, without adding any sweetness, to my taste buds. Your milage may vary, but I think that this is the secret.

Simple Syrup: I make mine with double strength coffee and sugar, one to one, rather than going the instant coffee route (one cup wet measure coffee, one cup dry measure sugar, bring to a boil, turn off and let cool). I brew the coffee from the same type of bean I have steeped. How much you make and cut the steeped solution is the ticket.

Final bottling:

Personally, and for the tastes of the people I prepare this for, they like it on the sweet side. So I do 4 cups of double strength coffee and 4 cups of sugar, cool it, and then combine with another 750 ml of 80 proof vodka, and the strained and filtered steeped solution. If I wanted a less sweet version, I would start with 1 cup of double strength coffee and 1 cup of sugar, omit the vodka, combine it directly with the steeped solution, and work up to my desired sweetness from there after it has had at least a week to combine and mellow. You can always add more sugar, but it is difficult to take it out without adding more booze or water or both. You can always do a 1 cup to 1 cup double strength coffee and sugar solution at a time. I would not add more booze until you have two cups of simple syrup to the solution. The only trick here is to remember that alcohol evaporates every time it is exposed to air.

My two cents, for what it is worth. And good luck in your quest.

I'm kind of picky about my coffee flavor. I want it strong, but not bitter.

←

Of the many recipes I've seen for homemade coffee liqueur, this one appeals to me most. My wife and I have given homemade liqueurs (limoncello, usually) as office Christmas gifts in the past, and given that two of her colleagues enjoy Kahlua drinks a great deal, we decided on a coffee liqueur.

As I said, the above recipe appealed to me, particularly the use of coffee syrup in addition to the coffee vanilla infusion. However, since there were no specific amounts for the coffee beans, I'm winging it.

I used 1 cup coarsely cracked French roast beans in a combination of 1L Everclear and 750mL vodka. 2 vanilla beans left over from the massive amount received at the beginning of my homemade vanilla extract procedure.

This solution has grown dark quickly and smells fantastic. I plan to taste at two weeks and decide where to go from there. I anticipate this will be enough coffee, but if I see any slowing of progress, I'll add to what's in the jug.

As I said, I will be using a coffee syrup as described above, and based on my previous liqueur experiments and what my wife's co-workers will probably prefer, I think I will aim on the sweeter side, say 3-4 cups of syrup (I may bottle 1-2 bottles at a lower Brix, as I don't enjoy sickly sweet liqueurs). I intend to cold-brew the double-strength coffee for the syrup, as I think that yields a strong flavor without bitterness. I'll report back with results.