Homemade coffee liqueur
The homemade version beats the original at the thing that matters most: it tastes of coffee, not caramel. It is cold-infused from whole beans and ready in three days.
Ingredients
- 200 g medium-roast coffee beans
- 750 ml white rum, brandy or vodka
- 1 vanilla pod, split lengthways
- 300 g brown sugar
- 150 ml water
Preparation
- Crack the beans with a pestle or the back of a knife, without grinding them. Finely ground releases too much sediment and the liqueur turns cloudy; left whole, it releases almost nothing.
- Put them in a jar with the alcohol and the vanilla. Seal it and leave it at room temperature for 2 to 3 days, shaking once a day.
- Do not push it further: from the fourth day the coffee starts giving up its roast bitterness and the liqueur turns harsh. Cold infusion is not a race, but it does have a ceiling.
- Strain first through a fine sieve and then through a paper coffee filter, which is what leaves it clear. Be patient: the filter goes drop by drop.
- Make the syrup with the brown sugar and water, let it cool completely and stir it into the coffee. Bottle it and wait a week before drinking.