Kahlua Anyone?

Just bottled a batch and made another one..... Costs less than $10 for three fifths. Here's the recipe if anyone is interested. Man I love a good caucasion....

Kahlua Recipe

4 cups water
4 cups sugar
1/2 cup instant coffee
a fifth of cheap vodka
2 vanilla beans (Split)

Bring water to a boil, add sugar, vanilla beans & coffee and boil for 20 minutes.

Remove from heat and allow to cool. Stir in the vodka. Pour in your mixture and let stand for 2 weeks.


Enjoy,
Jimi

Thanks!!! Made a copy. I don't know when I'll make some but the wife loves White Russians.

i LOVE white russians, i should try this.

sweet. Im gonna have to give this a try.. Thanks for posting this up.

For something different, use quality coffee beans, cut the sugar by 1 cup, and use brown sugar for one of the 3 cups of sugar. I've made gallons of this stuff, and now find the store bought Kahlua way too sweet, and not strong enough on the coffee flavour.

I don't even let it stand 2 weeks. 2 minutes and it's good.

use quality coffee beans

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Do you strain the bits out of just use them?

Looks interesting. Couple questions/comments:

1/2 cup instant coffee? or 1/2 cup ground instant coffee/beans... ? Just want to make sure before I dump in 1/2 cup of ground beans, when all that was needed was a 1/2 cup of coffee (as in coffee diluted in water). Understand? I am 95% sure I know the answer already (ground beans), just want to double check as it could be read either way?

Also, looks like there is some coffee grounds in the neck of the bottles. Wouldn't it be easy to strain this through a coffee filter or will it remove some necessary components? Can't see why it would?

Lastly, does it really taste like kahlua? Or just similar?

Not a big liqour drinker, but 3 fifths for $10 is cheap... might come in handy for a partaaay sometime.

2 cups ground coffee beans (medium roast pure arabica beans - Blue Mountain style would be appropriate)
3 cups boiling water
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
3 cups pure alcohol (40%abv)
1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. glycerin

I can't find my tweaked recipe, so it's back to the drawing board. This is what I started with (from Homedistiller.org I believe). The final recipe wasn't actually much different, just a little adjustment on the coffee strength, and maybe a sugar reduction. I ditched the glycerin.

Just use those beans to make coffee. I'm about to cook up a batch now, so I'll be back with my opinions later. I'll try to find that perfected recipe.

Edit: Ditch the 3 cups boiling water. You will have plenty of volume from making the coffee with the beans. You just boil it down with the sugar to an appropriate strength. It's a little trial and error to get it just the way you want it, but the good thing is while tweaking it, you won't have bad liquor. Guaranteed.

OK. On the fly updates. I used 7 very heaping tablespoons (the kind you eat with) of fresh ground coffee in 12 cups of water as my base. Coffee is brewing right now. As soon as it is done, it's on to the stove for boil-off.

I have about 11 cups of coffee, and I'll probably go with 3 cups of sugar - 2 white, one brown. Final target may be about 5 cups of syrup.

Hmm, great stuff gang!

Er... sorry to be dim, but how much is a fifth?

RoaringBrewer said:

Looks interesting. Couple questions/comments:

1/2 cup instant coffee? or 1/2 cup ground instant coffee/beans... ? Just want to make sure before I dump in 1/2 cup of ground beans, when all that was needed was a 1/2 cup of coffee (as in coffee diluted in water). Understand? I am 95% sure I know the answer already (ground beans), just want to double check as it could be read either way?

Also, looks like there is some coffee grounds in the neck of the bottles. Wouldn't it be easy to strain this through a coffee filter or will it remove some necessary components? Can't see why it would?

Lastly, does it really taste like kahlua? Or just similar?

Not a big liquor drinker, but 3 fifths for $10 is cheap... might come in handy for a partaaay sometime.

Click to expand...

Roaring,
For mine I use instant coffee. Easier than brewing coffee and dumping it in. I believe the specs at the neck of the bottle are from the vanilla beans. I guess you could strain it but I don't bother. As for taste, I've never actually compared the two but my caucasians (white russians) taste pretty good.
Jimi

Danek said:

Er... sorry to be dim, but how much is a fifth?

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1/5 of a gallon, which is 128 oz.

1/5 x 128 = 25.6 oz. = 757 mL

JimiGibbs said:

As for taste, I've never actually compared the two but my caucasians (white russians) taste pretty good.
Jimi

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I've done it both ways and prefer the good quality beans. But after you have 9 or 10, the connoisseur has past on, and the beast is less discriminating.

Boiling off as we speak. Tasting will be soon.

Damnit now im gonna have to make this too!

Yeah I might as well give this a try- I love white russians!

Another caucasian Gary...

Alright. I have it boiled down to 3 cups. Time to add the booze. I'm going to start with 750 ml of 40% and 1 tsp of good bourbon vanilla.

JimiGibbs said:

1/5 of a gallon, which is 128 oz.

1/5 x 128 = 25.6 oz. = 757 mL

Click to expand...

Awesome! Thanks

OK. Had to finish watching UEFA QF. A little to sweet with only 750ml of vodka (which brought the total to 6 cups). Adding 250ml more and I'll get back to yous.

Wound up adding another 250ml of vodka, which brought the total to just about 8 cups. Very nice. I glad somebody reminded me of this stuff.

Do you just bottle in twist off cap glass liquor bottles? Or what bottles are you using?

Boiling coffee tends to make it very bitter. Wouldn't it be better to make a smaller amount of VERY strong coffee, and not have to reduce (boil down) the coffee?

Seems like you'd keep the 'artisan coffee' flavor.

Never tried it, so I don't know nuthin. But sounds good. I'll try it.

I simmer the coffee, no rolling boil. Takes a couple hours. But you may be able to get all the coffee flavour in a lesser amount of water than I used.

As far as bottles go, I'm using old Kahlua bottles from the recycler. Any clean bottle will do AFAIAC.

Ok i am simmering the coffee, sugar and vanilla now. Never made this before at all just found this thread at work and thought it was worth a try. How long do you need to simmer(reduce) this stuff? I figure that if it is crap then it is cheap crap but heck i will try almost anything once, or twice I am just wondering how concentrated i need to make this concoctation (sp?)?


SD

I simmered mine for about 2 hours. It should look syrupy, but not thick like corm syrup. A spoon should feel slick on the bottom as is moves through. Like I said above, I boiled it down to 3 cups, and then added 1250ml 40% vodka. Tastes pretty good to me.

Ok thanks mr. X, i only brewed about 8 cups of coffee but used the same amount of coffee that you said ( about 7 spoonfulls) and followed the rest of your directions as close as i could. I have had the mixture on a slow boil (simmer) for about 30 min so far. i guess i will have to wait a bit more. dang.


SD

mr_stimey said:

Do you just bottle in twist off cap glass liquor bottles? Or what bottles are you using?

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I just use the bottle the cheap vodka comes in. I think it's Aristocrat. It's only around $5.50 a bottle. I've saved up bottles and not I've got 9 of them....
Jimi

Sorry JimiGibbs I didnt mean to bogart your thread this stuff could be the best stuff ever and i want to thank you for starting it. I just put a couple of bottles in the fridge to chill before i make a white russian. Bless you my friend.


SD

OK holy crap is all I can say.. This stuff is the bomb!!! I am on my second white russian! and i may be durnk n GOOD JOB In the imortal words of Homer J. Simpson "woo hoo"



SD

I'm still finding this a bit sweet for me. I'm thinking next time to reduce the sugar by 3/4 cup. Just a matter of preference. A lot of people will like it this sweet. I may up the coffee a tablespoon as well.

I've been making Kahlua for many years, and have nailed down a very good, reliable recipe. I'll post it as soon as I dig it out.

Went to the store and got some Vodka today. Now if I can just find a place with vanilla beans.. Any Idea's?

Good quality vanilla extract will work just as well. Most large grocery stores will carry vanilla beans.

Ryanh1801 said:

Went to the store and got some Vodka today. Now if I can just find a place with vanilla beans.. Any Idea's?

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I've been getting mine on line.... Ebay. I'll try and find the seller for you. Grocery stores & Health food stores have them but they usually charge a lot. I got a dozen beans for what you get one there.

Ok well ended up just having to use pure extract. Used the OP recipe, but used Turbinado sugar. Not bad only 20 bucks for everything, thats less than one bottle of Kahlua is at the store, next time it will be even cheaper. So how long before I can start drinking this stuff?

It's ready to drink now.

Awesome! I've been on a big white russian kick lately and I love Kahlua.

Do you really need to let it sit for 2 weeks? I can see waiting for the vanilla beans to impart their flavor, but if you use vanilla extract it seems to me that you can have almost "instant" Kahlua after a bit of shaking.

Wouldn't the use of real coffee beans or brewed coffee be a better idea than instant coffee? I can't stand instant, and I do find myself to be a bit of a coffee snob.

Anyone else used Mr X's idea of cutting the sugar down, substituting 1 cup of the 3 remaining for brown sugar? Sounds great to me, as I agree that the store-bought stuff is awful sweet without enough coffee flavor.

How long are you guys boiling for? The OP said 20 minutes, then others are saying 2 hours+....

If you are using vanilla extract, then it is done as soon as you throw in the alcohol. Godd quality vanilla extract is easily the equal of beans in this recipe. Personally, I wouldn't bother using beans or good extract with instant coffee,

I agree with real coffee being better. But, it is still good with instant. I find I can make it stronger with real coffee and maintain better taste.

When I look at the label, I think it includes caramel, which is why I use the brown sugar. I'm cutting the sugar even more next time, maybe closer to 2 1/3 cups. I fins when you start making/drinking gallons of this stuff, it gets to sweet quickly. I also find the store made stuff unneccessarily sweet after making my own.

Boiling time really depends on if you are using instant or real coffee. I simmered two hours because I made 10 cups of real coffee, and I needed to the the O.G. up.

mr x said:

If you are using vanilla extract, then it is done as soon as you throw in the alcohol. Godd quality vanilla extract is easily the equal of beans in this recipe. Personally, I wouldn't bother using beans or good extract with instant coffee,

I agree with real coffee being better. But, it is still good with instant. I find I can make it stronger with real coffee and maintain better taste.

When I look at the label, I think it includes caramel, which is why I use the brown sugar. I'm cutting the sugar even more next time, maybe closer to 2 1/3 cups. I fins when you start making/drinking gallons of this stuff, it gets to sweet quickly. I also find the store made stuff unneccessarily sweet after making my own.

Boiling time really depends on if you are using instant or real coffee. I simmered two hours because I made 10 cups of real coffee, and I needed to the the O.G. up.

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What amount did you eventually boil down to?

Does cheap vodka affect the final product? Most likely I'll be making my Kahlua with Skol . Has anyone used a higher-quality vodka with significant results, or does the cheap stuff do the trick?

mr x said:

I simmered mine for about 2 hours. It should look syrupy, but not thick like corm syrup. A spoon should feel slick on the bottom as is moves through. Like I said above, I boiled it down to 3 cups, and then added 1250ml 40% vodka. Tastes pretty good to me.

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From a few posts back.

I wouldn't use Belvedere or Grey Goose for sure. Smirnoff quality would be fine I'm sure.