Homemade Liqueurs and Infused Spirits: Innovative Flavor Combinations, Plus Homemade Versions of Kahlúa, Cointreau, and Other Popular Liqueurs (21 page)
Authors: Andrew Schloss
Tags: #liquor, #cofee, #home cocktails, #cocktails, #liqueurs, #popular liqueurs, #spirits, #creamy, #kahlua, #unsweetened infused, #flavored alcohol, #bar recipes, #sweetners, #distilled, #herbal, #nutty, #creative coctails, #flowery, #infused spirits, #clones, #flavorings, #margarita, #home bar, #recipes, #cointreau, #cocktail recipes, #alcohol, #caramel, #homemade liqueurs, #fruity, #flavoring alcohol
- Café NOLA
- Chai-namon
- Chocolate Night
- Chocolate Orange Peel
- Coco-Loco (Copycat Crème de Cacao)
- Coffee Nut
- Double Shot (Copycat Kahlúa or Tia Maria)
- Green Honey
- Latte Liqueur
- MOCA
- Moroccan Mint
- Smokin’
- Sweet Chocolate
- Tannin Teaser
- Viennese Jo
- White Fig
Chocolate is a food set apart. Too much sugar is cloying. Too much cayenne burns. But too much chocolate is an oxymoron. So it is only fitting to find another way to consume our favorite decadence.
Chocolate liqueurs are some of the easiest to like, with coffee running a close second, and because both flavors are readily available, they are some of the easiest liqueurs to tincture.
I have also included a few tea liqueurs in this chapter, partially because it is a common hot beverage, like coffee and chocolate, but also because tea leaves, like cocoa and coffee beans, are almost always fermented. Fermentation enriches the flavors of raw produce. Just as it changes grapes into wine, and barley into beer, it transforms the fruit of the Theobroma cacao tree and the Coffea bush, and the dried leaves of Camellia sinesis, into super-rich commodities that are three of the most valuable agricultural products in the world.
Tea liqueurs are more subtle than coffee and chocolate varieties, closer in flavor to herbal and floral recipes, but they have an interesting grown-up astringency that makes them highly appropriate for this group.
For most chocolate liqueurs I use cacao nibs. Nothing more than cracked cocoa beans that have been fermented and roasted, nibs contain all of the flavor and fatty elements of the cocoa beans. They produce beautifully colored transparent chocolate liqueurs that are free of sediment and full of flavor.
For coffee I try to use recently roasted beans that I crack right before adding to the alcohol. As with cacao nibs, cracking the beans rather than grinding them keeps sediment to a minimum. Put the beans in a ziplock bag, seal it, and pound them with a rubber mallet. Use any roast you prefer, but dark-roast coffees have less perfume and more bitterness than lighter roasts.
In the early stages of roasting coffee beans, carbs are broken down into various acids that give light brown beans a pronounced tartness. As roasting proceeds, the acids are replaced by bitter compounds, and the distinctive aromas that distinguish high-quality beans are overshadowed by more generic roasted flavors.
For liqueurs with an espresso flavor, that dark-roast jolt is what you are looking for, but when you want a more nuanced coffee flavor, choose light- to medium-roast beans.
Whole loose tea leaves deliver the freshest flavor and cleanest tincture for tea liqueurs, but tea bags are fine if that’s all you have. White and green teas are less tannic than longer-fermented oolong and black teas and will yield a milder, more perfumed liqueur. Black teas possess a generic astringent quality that acts as a foil to sweetness in a liqueur, bitters in a cocktail.
Copycat Kahlúa or Tia Maria
Supercharged coffee liqueur lies at the fulcrum of perfect energy balance, weighing the neuron-stimulating potency of caffeine against the soporific effect of alcohol. The coffee is administered on two fronts — cracked dark-roast beans are infused into the alcohol, and brewed coffee is used as the base for the sugar syrup. Use this in any drink that calls for a standard coffee liqueur, like a Black Russian or an Irish Coffee.
Makes about 1 quart
- 1 fifth (750 ml/3
1
⁄
4
cups) vodka (80–100 proof) - 1
1
⁄
2
cups (7
1
⁄
2
ounces) dark-roast coffee beans, cracked - Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- 3
⁄
4
cup brewed espresso - 3
⁄
4
cup sugar
- 1.
Combine the vodka, coffee beans, and lemon zest in a half-gallon jar. Stir to moisten everything. - 2.
Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of coffee, 3 to 5 days. - 3.
While the liqueur is maturing, make coffee-flavored syrup by combining the brewed espresso and sugar in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat until the mixture turns translucent and bubbles form around the edge. Do not allow the mixture to boil. - 4.
Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid. - 5.
Stir in the coffee syrup. - 6.
Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.
Cheers!
Wake up with a B-52 (
page 239
) or Cola Coffee (
page 243
).
Coffee is serious business on the Danube. Coffeehouse menus typically describe no fewer than two dozen coffees, each with its own garnish and plate service. Several are served with shots of liqueur. Viennese Jo is inspired by the Pharisäer served at Vienna’s Café Central in the Innere Stadt — black coffee served with whipped cream on the side, a small glass of rum, and a chaser of ice water. You have a choice of cinnamon or cocoa sprinkled on top. Because the cream would separate as the liqueur ages, it has to be added as you serve it.
Makes about 1 quart
- 1 fifth (750 ml/3
1
⁄
4
cups) light rum (80 proof) - 1
1
⁄
2
cups (7
1
⁄
2
ounces) medium-roast coffee beans, cracked - 3 cinnamon sticks, cracked
- 1
1
⁄
4
cups
Simple Syrup
- 1.
Combine the rum, coffee beans, and cinnamon in a half-gallon jar. Stir to moisten everything. - 2.
Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of coffee, 3 to 5 days. - 3.
Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid. - 4.
Stir in the simple syrup. - 5.
Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.
Santé!
A teaspoon or two of cream for every 2 ounces of liqueur is sufficient.
A caffe latte should have about a 1:3 coffee-to-milk ratio. The coffee should be espresso, the milk should be steamed, and the whole should be topped with a spoonful of milk foam. Cinnamon is optional. Since it is impossible to simulate the layering effect of milk foam in a liqueur, and since steamed milk will limit the life of the bottle, the best solution is to use condensed milk, which adds the necessary sweetness and is stable enough to be used in a tincture.
Makes about 1 quart
- 1 fifth (750 ml/3
1
⁄
4
cups) brandy (80 proof) - 1
1
⁄
2
cups (7
1
⁄
2
ounces) dark-roast coffee beans, cracked - 1 cinnamon stick, cracked
- 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
- 1.
Combine the brandy, coffee beans, and cinnamon in a half-gallon jar. Stir to moisten everything. - 2.
Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of coffee, 3 to 5 days. - 3.
Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid. - 4.
Stir in the condensed milk. - 5.
Seal and store in the refrigerator. Use within 2 months.
Salut!
In winter, use Latte Liqueur to spike your evening cocoa.
Café brûlot is a New Orleans classic.
Brûlot
, meaning “burnt” in French, refers to the practice of flaming a pan of orange peel, clove, cinnamon, brandy, coffee, and melted sugar. While the flames flare, you raise the spiral of orange peel on the prongs of a fork and ladle the flaming coffee down the spiral. The presentation and the flavors are memorable, and here they are forged forever in an orange-coffee liqueur that is much less labor-intensive than the flaming original.
Makes about 1 quart
- 1 fifth (750 ml/3
1
⁄
4
cups) brandy (80 proof) - 1 cup (4 ounces) medium-roast coffee beans, cracked
- Finely grated zest of 2 oranges
- 3 whole cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick, cracked
- 1
1
⁄
4
cups
Caramelized Simple Syrup
- 1.
Combine the brandy, coffee beans, orange zest, cloves, and cinnamon in a half-gallon jar. Stir to moisten everything. - 2.
Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of coffee, 3 to 5 days. - 3.
Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid. - 4.
Stir in the simple syrup. - 5.
Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.
Skål!
Serve warm and unadorned in demitasse cups.
I am not a fan of flavored coffees, but hazelnut coffee at least makes some sense to me. The sweet nuttiness of toasted hazelnuts masks some of the coffee’s natural bitterness without completely changing the flavor profile. Nuts and beans have protein flavors in common. And the method used here to integrate hazelnut nuance into the coffee is more natural than the technique used for flavoring roasted coffee beans, which is largely done with chemical solvents.
Makes about 1 quart
- 1 fifth (750 ml/3
1
⁄
4
cups) vodka (80–100 proof) - 1 cup (4 ounces) medium-roast coffee beans, cracked
- 1
⁄
2
cup (3 ounces) roasted hazelnuts, finely ground - 1 vanilla bean (Madagascar or Bourbon), split
- 1 cup
Brown Simple Syrup - 1
⁄
4
cup honey
- 1.
Combine the vodka, coffee beans, hazelnuts, and vanilla in a half-gallon jar. Stir to moisten everything. - 2.
Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of coffee, 3 to 5 days. - 3.
Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid. - 4.
Stir in the simple syrup and honey. - 5.
Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.
Cheers!
Make a Hazelnut Coffee (
page 240
) by adding a splash of Coffee Nut to a hot cup of java.
Mocha (or Moka) can mean many things: 1) a chocolate-and-coffee beverage; 2) a port city in Yemen that is a famous coffee marketplace; 3) a variety of coffee bean; and 4) a stovetop espresso pot first produced by Bialetti Industries in 1933. This coffee and chocolate liqueur (spelled MOCA for distinction) could have been inspired by any of the above, and if you choose to use authentic Yemeni Mocha coffee beans, you will support that point.
Similar to the kinship of coffee and toasted nuts, coffee and chocolate share many flavor characteristics, including a balance of acidity and bitterness, toasted flavors from roasting, and an affinity for sweetening, all of which make them especially easy to like in liqueur.
Makes about 1 quart
- 1
1
⁄
2
cups vodka (80–100 proof) - 1
1
⁄
2
cups brandy (80 proof) - 1 cup (4 ounces) cacao nibs
- 1 cup (4 ounces) medium-roast coffee beans, cracked
- 1
1
⁄
4
cups
Brown Simple Syrup
- 1.
Combine the vodka, brandy, cacao nibs, and coffee beans in a half-gallon jar. Stir to moisten everything. - 2.
Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of chocolate and coffee, 3 to 5 days. - 3.
Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid. - 4.
Stir in the simple syrup. - 5.
Seal and store in the refrigerator. Use within 6 months.
Santé!
Shake with ice — instant Mocha Martini!
Matcha, finely milled high-quality green tea powder, is the centerpiece of the Japanese tea ceremony. The method for powdering steamed dried tea leaves was developed in Song Dynasty China (960 to 1279). The practice of whipping matcha in hot water became popular, and consumption of such tea was codified into ritual by Zen Buddhists.
In modern times, matcha has become popular as a flavoring/coloring agent for mochi and soba noodles, green tea ice cream, and candies. It is prized for its antioxidant prowess. And what a color! Green Honey liqueur is vibrant apple green, with a light grassy perfume.
Makes about 1 quart
- 1 fifth (750 ml/3
1
⁄
4
cups) vodka (80–100 proof) - 8 green tea bags
- 1
⁄
4
cup matcha powder - Grated zest of 3 limes
- 3
⁄
4
cup mild honey, like clover or orange blossom
- 1.
Combine the vodka, tea bags, matcha, lime zest, and honey in a half-gallon jar. Stir to moisten everything. - 2.
Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of green tea, 3 to 5 days. - 3.
Strain the mixture with a fine-mesh strainer. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid. - 4.
Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.
Cheers!
Refreshing over ice, garnished with a wedge of lime, and soothing served warm, as you would sake.