Homemade coffee liqueur recipe

I welcome you back to another coffee recipe article; today, I will bring you one you will love. I will teach you how to prepare a delicious and easy-to-make homemade coffee liqueur. Besides, I will show you four super easy and simple cocktails where we can use this amazing liqueur.

Coffee liqueur and four cocktails prepared with it
Coffee liqueur and four cocktails prepared with it

Ingredients for preparing homemade coffee liqueur

To obtain approximately 8.5 ounces of this liqueur, we will need the following ingredients:

  • One gram of cinnamon, approximately a quarter of a stick.
  • Two grams of cocoa nibs, approximately one heaped teaspoon.
  • One teaspoon of natural vanilla extract.
  • 50 grams of high-quality coffee.
  • 4 grams of orange peel.
  • 100 grams of brown sugar.
  • 8.5 ounces of white rum.

Preparation of the homemade coffee liqueur

The preparation of this liqueur will be very similar to what we do for a traditional concentrated cold brew.

  1. For this, we are going to lose 50 grams of coffee and grind them in a medium coarse size, with a texture similar to breadcrumbs or coarse sand (it is the same grind I use for the French Press), and we are going to place it in a jar with a lid.
  2. To this ground coffee, add the 8.5 ounces of rum, then the teaspoon of natural vanilla extract, the heaping teaspoon of cocoa nibs, the gram of cinnamon, and the 4 grams of orange peel (make sure it does not have the white part of the orange, you must make a very superficial cut to remove only the peel).
How to incorporate the ingredients to make coffee liqueur
How to incorporate the ingredients to make coffee liqueur
  1. Now stir it well and let it infuse for about 4 hours.
  2. After these 4 hours, we will remove only the orange peel since it is invasive if we leave it longer. We cover it again and leave it for another 20 hours.
  3. After this time, we will filter it, and for this, I recommend a 100% paper filter; in this case, I used the V60, but with anyone, it will be perfect.
Filtering the infusion to make the coffee liqueur
Filtering the infusion to make the coffee liqueur
  1. And now we must be patient. The first part drains very quickly, and we will leave it alone for a while so that gravity does its work and we have all the liquid filtered. Bear in mind that coffee always retains approximately twice its weight.
  2. We will dilute this infused rum a little to lower its alcohol content and sweeten it.
  3. While it is being filtered, we are going to make syrup. For this, we weigh 100 grams of blonde sugar, add about 2.7 ounces of hot water, stir until it dissolves well, and let it lower its temperature a little.
  4. Once the filtration is finished, add the syrup to the infusion and stir to incorporate.
We sweeten the infusion with syrup
We sweeten the infusion with syrup
  1. And that’s it, we have our homemade coffee liqueur.

I love to keep it in the fridge and enjoy it on its own or with a little ice and relax with a glass in the afternoon. Keep this recipe; it is a bomb and super easy to make with things you have at home. Plus, you don’t need any special tools.

Homemade coffee liqueur
Homemade coffee liqueur

But, as if this were not enough, I will also show you how to prepare four delicious cocktails to put into action.

Cocktails prepared with homemade coffee liqueur

I found these four recipes on Steve The Bartender’s channel, an Australian who makes great and super simple drinks. The ones I bring you here are some classics modified to enhance and make the coffee shine.

Coffee Espresso Martini

Let’s start with the first and most classic of them all. When you think of coffee and alcohol, a special cocktail comes to mind, the Espresso Martini. In this case a little bit different, with only two ingredients, coffee liqueur, and espresso.

Step by step to prepare the Espresso Martini

  1. Let’s start by making the espresso, obviously calibrated and well-extracted since it is the fundamental piece here. If you have any doubts or want to know more about it, I recommend the article I did on espresso. For this recipe, we will use a doppio, in this case, 38 grams.
  2. Then we add about 1.4 ounces of our coffee liqueur and incorporate everything in the shaker.
  3. Now we fill the shaker with ice, cover it and start shaking. Here the espresso plays a very important role since it will create an intense cream due to the aeration, the carbon dioxide comes into contact with the oxygen, and small bubbles are produced, making it look amazing.
  4. To decorate, add three coffee beans, and we have a delicious Espresso Martini.
Preparation of the Espresso Martini
Preparation of the Espresso Martini

Coffee is the star of this cocktail; in my case, I used a coffee with citric notes of tangerine flavor, and the touch of orange in the liqueur enhances it. I thought it was very good, you have to try it.

Coffee Cold Fashioned

The second cocktail is also very simple and only has three ingredients, coffee liqueur, orange peel, and whiskey. In another simplified version, it is the Coffee Old Fashioned or Cold Fashioned.

Step by step to prepare the Cold Fashioned

  1. To begin with, place 1.5 ounces of coffee liqueur and 1.5 ounces of the whiskey of your choice in a glass with ice. Stir in the glass to dilute the ice a little.
  2. Squeeze the peel a little to help the essential oils of the orange to come out, and rub the edges of the glass with a little bit. Twist the peel and place it inside the glass.
  3. And ready, we have a powerful, intense, but delicious Cold Fashioned, another classic.
Cold Fashioned Preparation
Cold Fashioned Preparation

The orange with the coffee liqueur goes amazing, and the characteristic sweetness of the whiskey lifts all the flavors.

Dominicana coffee

We continue with the third cocktail, another one with only three ingredients, super easy. We need coffee liqueur, cream, and Dominican rum; that’s why it is called Dominicana.

Step by step to prepare the Dominicana

  1. We start by mixing 1.5 ounces of coffee liqueur and 1.5 ounces of Dominican rum, fill it with ice and stir it well to cool it down.
  2. Now we serve it in a glass, ensure you have it well chilled, and we will leave a place on top to serve the milk cream.
  3. To serve the milk cream, we must place it slowly on the back of a spoon so that we have a separate layer at the top, approximately 1 ounce.
  4. And that’s it, we already have a surprisingly rich Dominicana, creamy, dense, sweet, it reminds me a lot of Irish creams, really delicious.
Preparation of the Dominicana
Preparation of the Dominicana

Coffee Negroni

Finally, we come to the fourth cocktail, perhaps the most complex as it has five ingredients, but once you have them, it is super easy to prepare. Its ingredients are coffee liqueur, gin, Campari, sweet vermouth, and a slice of orange, it is the Coffee Negroni.

Step by step to prepare the Coffee Negroni

  1. We will place 1 ounce of coffee liqueur in a glass, 1 ounce of the gin of your preference, 0.5 ounces of Campari, and 0.3 ounces of vermouth.
  2. Fill the glass with ice and swirl a few times.
  3. To garnish, a slice of orange and the Coffee Negroni is ready.
Preparation of the Coffee Negroni
Preparation of the Coffee Negroni

This cocktail is unquestionably the most refreshing, you can feel the bitterness of the Campari and the herbal notes that combine very well with the citrus of coffee and orange; it is a very good choice for summer evenings.

So here you have all these recipes that include the incredible coffee liqueur we made, super easy and delicious, either on its own or as a base for cocktails. The possibilities with this liqueur are endless.