Make Your Own!
Written: Nov 12 '00 (Updated Nov 12 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Real: Sweet but with fire; can't be beat. Homemade: Cheap, fun alternative.
Cons: Real: None. Homemade: Doesn't taste exactly like the real stuff.
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| Steve_NC's Full Review: Kahlua Licor de Cafe |
Review of Kahlua, the real thing
No one can really duplicate Kahlua, of course. There are other coffee liqueurs available but Kahlua is in a class by itself. Dark, sweet, sticky, and more chocolatey than "coffee-ey," Kahlua is liked by people who don't like liqueurs generally. Yet, for us liqueur aficionados, it provides enough of that fire-going-down-the-throat sensation to keep it from being cloying.
Kahlua is made in Mexico and Mexico is the best place to buy it if you are fortunate enough to travel there or if you live close to the border, mainly because it's much cheaper there. In addition, if you're like me, there is something kind of cool about buying a product like this at its point of origin. (I have a brother-in-law who drives to Maine from North Carolina every year just to shop for Christmas presents in the L.L. Bean store. He could shop from a catalog, of course, and the additional shipping costs certainly would not begin to approach the expense of driving up there, but purchasing L.L. Bean stuff in Maine makes his gifts more authentic, at least in his own mind.)
Liquor stores in Mexico cater to tourists by putting two products front and center: Kahlua and tequila. These are the two Mexican alcoholic liquors that everyone knows, and they are the ones that everyone brings back to the U.S. Probably in very touristy areas, such as around the resorts, the prices will be jacked up somewhat, but you should still be able to get either of these at a bargain compared with your at-home liquor store.
Unfortunately the U.S. government greatly restricts the amount of liquor you may "import" from abroad. You should be OK if you bring back a couple of big bottles of Kahlua, or two bottles of tequila, or a bottle of each. Texas (and possibly some of the other border states), in order to protect its own liquor stores, puts additional restrictions on bringing in alcohol. Whether you are flying to Mexico or entering by car, find out the current regulations both at the federal and the state level, as well as the current level of enforcement if you are tempted to fudge the rules.
Like most liqueurs, Kahlua should be sipped from small liqueur glasses or cups, or from shot glasses. Because of its chocolatey flavor it also finds its way into a large variety of mixed drinks, "black" and "white" Russians being the best known. The manufacturer, of course, will happily supply other drink recipes that incorporate its product. A shot of Kahlua in a cup of hot coffee is also a great way to enjoy it, and for an excellent dessert, drizzle some over a quality brand of vanilla ice cream.
If you like liqueurs, and/or you like chocolate, and/or you like coffee, you owe it to yourself to try some Kahlua.
How to Make "Kahlua" at Home
This is a recipe for making a generic coffee liqueur in your own kitchen that will taste very, very good. It will not taste exactly like Kahlua but you will be proud of your results nonetheless.
When I made my first batch I sat some friends down and poured them each a glass of my stuff, and a glass of real Kahlua, without revealing to them which was which. They all could tell that there was a difference. About half preferred my coffee liqueur and half preferred the Kahlua.
The advantage of homemade coffee liqueur, besides the pride of doing it yourself, is cost. You will use vodka as the alcohol base, and it doesn't really matter how cheap a vodka you buy. This recipe also calls for a fresh vanilla bean, which is not cheap, but ounce for ounce your homemade liqueur should still cost you less than the commercial product.
My first batch of coffee liqueur filled a glass-stoppered decanter that sat on my counter, providing months of enjoyment before being used up. I used subsequent batches to fill recycled wine bottles, which I gave as gifts, complete with "Steve's Coffee Liqueur" labels. (Note: Although I never had any problems with storing the finished product at room temperature, to be on the safe side you might want to keep it in the refrigerator and advise any friends you give it to to do so also.)
Equipment
Saucepan
Coffee maker (see below)
2 stoppered bottles
Ingredients
Finely ground dark-roast coffee
Brown sugar
Vodka (90 to 100 proof)
Fresh vanilla bean
Glycerin (see below)
Steps
1. Place a filter in the filter basket of your coffee maker and fill it almost full of the ground coffee. In a typical coffee maker using a standard paper filter, this should be approximately 2 or 2 1/2 cups.
(Note that I'm not talking about the amount of ground coffee needed to make 2 cups of coffee to drink; I'm talking about 2 actual cups of ground coffee.) If you have any doubt about the amount of ground coffee you used to almost fill the filter, measure; you will need this information for the next step.
Note: The easiest coffee maker to use for this is the type where you pour hot water directly into the ground coffee, which sits in a cone-shaped filter, which in turn drips the brewed coffee into a pot. However, since most people now use Mr. Coffee-type electric drip coffee makers, I've written these instructions for them. Just be aware that because the filter in an electric drip maker is relatively shallow, and you're filling it, there is the potential to make a mess.*
2. Put as much water into the saucepan as the amount of coffee you used in the coffee maker. You want a one-to-one correspondence; if you used two cups of coffee you will use two cups of water. Slit the vanilla bean and place it in the water. Simmer for 15 minutes, then allow the water to cool some.
3. Fish the vanilla bean out of the water and save it. Pour the water into your coffee maker and turn it on to brew, just as you normally would. What you will be making will be an incredibly strong coffee concentrate.
4. When it's finished brewing, remove the filter basket containing the filter and wet coffee grounds and hold the filter basket over the saucepan. Immediately pour the coffee concentrate that you just made through the grounds, into the saucepan, to produce really incredibly strong concentrate.
5. The coffee concentrate should still be hot. If not you can turn on the heat under the saucepan for 20 seconds or so. Dissolve brown sugar into the hot concentrate in an amount equal to the amount of coffee you used. In the example we're using, this would mean 2 to 2 1/2 cups of sugar.
6. Allow the coffee-and-sugar concentrate to cool some, then pour into a stoppered bottle. Add vodka to the bottle in an amount equal to the amount of concentrate; again, in our example, this would be 2 to 2 1/2 cups. (Depending on the size of the bottle, you may want to make additional concentrate and add it, with the corresponding amount of vodka, to top off the bottle.)
7. Add the vanilla bean to the bottle, put the stopper in, and refrigerate for four or five days. Taste. When you can barely distinguish the taste of the vanilla, pour into a second bottle and throw away the vanilla bean.
8. Add a couple teaspoons of glycerin to your liqueur to give it body. Strictly speaking this is optional, but I personally don't like to go to all the trouble of making coffee liqueur just to have it be watery in texture. (Glycerin is cheap and it used to be available in any drug store. Nowadays if you ask for it, you're likely to be told that all they have is glycerin suppositories! THESE WON'T WORK [at least for our job]! Just keep looking.)
Your coffee liqueur is now ready to drink and enjoy. Let me know how it turns out.
*You may be interested in my review of the Black and Decker coffee maker with thermal carafe. See "The Case of the Perfect Coffee Maker."
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Steve_NC
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Member: Steve Smith
Location: Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Reviews written: 28
Trusted by: 28 members
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