DIY Coffee Liqueur

I’ll show you how to make DIY Coffee Liqueur and use it in a Revolver cocktail, to celebrate International Coffee Day. It might seem like quite a process but it’s well worth it, trust me. For the base I used Sailor Jerry spiced rum. The Revolver is a caffeinated version of the Old Fashioned, created in 2004 by Jon Santer, a San Francisco bartender. You can find The Revolver, and many other interesting recipes, in Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s The Bar Book.

For the base of our homemade coffee liqueur we’ll use Sailor Jerry spiced rum, created as a tribute to Norman Collins, known as Sailor Jerry – the father of the old school tattoo. His work is featured on the bottle of this Caribbean rum, blended with natural spices to create a rich smooth taste, with distinctive notes of vanilla, caramel, and oak, with hints of clove and cinnamon. These flavors pair beautifully with dark coffee and cocoa to create a complex, spiced liqueur that works perfectly in cocktails like the Revolver.

DIY Coffee Liqueur

· 300 ml (10 oz) Sailor Jerry spiced rum

· 50 g dark roast coffee

· 5 cocoa beans

· ½ halved vanilla bean

· 1 small piece of whiskey barrel oak

· 0,3 g Ceylon cinnamon

Sous vide the ingredients for 4 hours on 60°C (140°F). Let that cool before filtering and mixing with the Cold Brew Coffee Syrup.

Cold Brew Syrup

· 300 ml filtered water

· 20 g ground coffee

Leave it in the fridge for 12 hours, then filter it through a coffee filter. You should end up with around 250 ml of cold brew coffee to which you add:

· 220 g demerara sugar

· 30 g muscovado sugar

Stir until the sugar dissolves, avoiding heat to keep the cold brew… cold.

Once both infusions are ready, strain the sous vide mixture and combine it with an equal amount of the coffee syrup. Bottle and label your finished liqueur – and try not to use it all straight away.

Sweet, rich, and aromatic, this homemade coffee liqueur brings together the smooth spiced rum base with roasted coffee, cocoa, vanilla, and oak. It’s perfect on its own or in cocktails like the Revolver.

If you'd like something even more special check out this Coffee Liqueur made with cryo-concentrated Guinness and Jameson - it's so good even James Hoffmann loved it! Cheers!

#coffee #diy #liqueur