Homemade Kahlua (Coffee Liqueur) from Scratch

Kahlua = Coffee Liqueur. Who knew?

A few weeks ago I was out with friends and as it often does, the conversation turned to coffee.  I’m no teetotaller, but somehow I managed to make it through my adolescence, and now most of my young adulthood, without ever realizing that Kahlua is coffee liqueur.  Who knew?  Well, everyone but me, apparently.

Since I have such great friends, they insisted on ordering me Kahlua shots at the next bar we entered.  Imagine the scene: 11 PM, we go into ESPN Zone, on the day Don Meredith died (old football clips on every screen in the joint)… and they order me Kahlua.  It’s a good thing I’m comfortable with my masculinity.  The waiter had to ask what Kahlua was, so apparently he was blissfully unaware of the coffee connection, too.

As I knocked back a Kahlua shot, I had several thoughts simultaneously:

1. Too f__king sweet.
2. There is a hint of coffee in there somewhere
3. People take this with cream? Yuck.
4. Too f__king sweet.

But like I often do in matters such as this, over the next few days I became obsessed with the thought of making my own coffee liqueur (Kahlua is a brand name of the most famous coffee liqueur, but it turns out not to be the only one out there).  I researched in intensively.  Which is to say that I Googled it, and read the results on Page 1. At least the ones I didn’t have to scroll to get to.

It didn’t take long to convince myself that: a) there is no right way to make coffee liqueur, and b) most of the people out there publishing to the internet on the topic are hacks.  So I figured, “what the hell?”.  May as well try my own version and publish that – worst case, I’m just another hack in cyberspace.

I thought long and hard about how to make a coffee liqueur, and even consulted some of my heavy imbiber friends (which is to say my French friends) on the topic. I decided that my attempt has three goals:

1. I want to taste coffee.  And be able to distinguish its nature, e.g., origin, roast, etc.;
2. I’m not a huge fan of hooch for the sake of hooch, so I wanted to use a tasty alcohol component, and probably not too much of it;
3. It cannot be too f___king sweet.

With that in mind, a brewed up 0.75 liters of seriously stiff coffee.  I didn’t bring the refractometer home to measure, but tasting it, I’m guessing it was 1.5% TDS.  I used our Thanksgiving Blend, with the thought that the Kona will give it balance, and the African coffee in it will breathe life into it when cold (the African coffee in our Thanksgiving Blend is my favorite cold coffee).  I used a quarter pound of my favorite raw sugar, because in my mind that’s already enough to be sickeningly sweet.  Some of the recipes I read called for like 2 cups of sugar in a similar quantity of coffee, which to me is just stupid.  For the hooch, I selected (at the suggestion of a French friend) an 80-proof apple brandy called Calvados, a beverage unique to France, which is usually a good thing.  Specifically, I used a rather unremarkable example which is the only one that could be obtained at a NC ABC store.  Knowing what little I do about how to read a French wine label, I initially thought that the AOC designation made this brandy among the best of its kind.  With a little subsequent research, I became pretty sure that the absence of a qualifier – “Trois pommes”, “Vieille Réserve”, etc., means that it’s the brandy equivalent of a Vin de Table wine.  Sure enough, the producer’s web site contained the following description: “While the Calvados du Pays d´Auge needs to undergo lengthy ageing in oak casks to reach full maturity, Calvados from the Domfront region, whose range of flavours is dominated by the fruit, can be drunk young. That explains why at the « entry level » of his range of Calvados Christian DROUIN prefers to offer one that has been produced in his Domfront establishment. Recommended to those who appreciate Calvados as a long drink at aperitif time, it is also well suited to the preparation of cocktails, and for gourmet recipes.”  Next time I’m in France I’ll seek out a better example.  It does have incredible apple aroma, and a hint of apple flavor, though I confess I felt like it was burning a hole in my esophagus when I tried it straight.  Did I mention I’m not much on hooch?

Basically, I blended all the ingredients, and bottled it to sit for a few weeks.  I did sneak a taste, and thought it was actually pretty good.  Certainly better than the branded Kahlua, unless you’re drinking that beverage for the sugar content.  I was able to taste the complexity of both the coffee and the brandy, without an overwhelmingly sickening sweetness.  I think the coffee could stand to be stronger yet, but I’ll reserve judgment till the official tasting, which will likely be sometime in February.

Here’s the photo journal of the process:

About 75 grams of coffee to make 0.75 liter - quite strong

1/4 lb of unrefined sugar

French hooch

Mix well

Bottle and hold for a few weeks. Enjoy excess today.

http://www.muddydogcoffee.com