Coffee Liquor

For a person who doesn't drink much, I have been spending a lot of time recently downing many bottles of rum. I am downing them into a coffee concoction for my sweetie. You may ask, "Why do you do this?" and I can say, "Because he wanted it."

So this is the history. My dear Sweet Eduard started roasting his own coffee several years ago. It is really delicious and I am totally addicted. We were sitting one night talking and he was sipping his favorite drink- Kahlua. I asked him if he had thought about maybe making his own coffee liquor with his home roasted coffee, just to get a product with more coffee flavor. I have never been fond of Kahlua and never thought it tasted at all like coffee. So the idea was introduced and it percolated for awhile.

Then after a bit of research, I bought a bottle of rum and started experimenting on coffee, vanilla, sugar, etc, trying to get a workable system to produce a tasty product. Right from the start, the product tasted better than Kahlua- more coffee, less sugary syrup. We started refining the method and writing notes on the recipe attempts.

Finally, we settled on a practical use of materials, tools and time. My kitchen is a gadget wonderland because I make so much stuff. I didn't really want to buy anything new for this project, so I searched high and low until I found enough stuff to do what I wanted to do. I amazed even myself. There are things in my upper cabinets that I haven't seen for years. Some I had forgotten I even owned. That just means that downsizing will be easiest if I start from the top and work down. I will remember that for the future.

After I had made several quarts of really tasty coffee liquor, Eduard took some to work to share with his friends. This turned into a list of 36 people who wanted a little bottle for the holidays. I also had a list of about 6 people who are friends who might be interested. All of a sudden, I am now making 4 gallons of coffee liquor before Thanksgiving. You may ask, "Why do you do this?" and I would say, "because he wanted it?"

Eduard went on-line and found a place that sells 8 oz bottles. He bought 48. There are 4 cups in a quart. 4 quarts in a gallon. That means 16 bottles per gallon. 48 cups= 3 gallons so I will have 1 gallon left for my sweetie for the whole year. Or for some extra in case we need a bit more.

Today, I brewed the last 3 jars of rum/coffee extract. I had strained the previous 3 and made the sugar syrup. Now I have to wait and stir for 5 days until the rum has sucked all the coffee flavor out of the grounds. I will finally get to put my equipment away around the middle of the month. Whew! just in time to clean house for Thanksgiving.

Since I am not really a drinker, I have been thinking that maybe some other type of extraction might be nice for me- strawberries, peaches, blackberries. But then, what would I do with the alcohol part.  I will probably stick to fruit smoothies, with no kick.