Kahlua Coffee Recipe: How to Make This Drink At Home

I'm always looking for ways to make my Sunday brunch and afternoon coffee breaks more decadent. So after reading about Kahlua coffee and its variations, I found my weekend brunch coffee. Read on to learn more about what it is and how to make it.

How to Make Kahlua Coffee (recipe)

Like a white Russian drink, you can make Kahlua coffee in under ten minutes from start to finish. These are easy coffee cocktails to accompany a nice dinner or as a delicious complement for brunch. For a more indulgent drink, garnish your Kahlua coffee with whipped cream and chocolate curls.

1. Grind and Brew Your Coffee

Whichever coffee brewing method you've chosen to use, grind your beans just before brewing. Any roast will work, but we recommend using a light to medium roast.

2. Pour Your Kahlua Liqueur Into a Heat-Safe Mug

As your coffee is brewing, pour a full-shot of Kahlua coffee liqueur into your favorite heat-safe coffee mug. To ensure your drink stays warm, you can preheat your mug, too.

3. Pour Brewed Coffee into Your Kahlua

Once your coffee is done, pour the freshly brewed coffee into the mug with the Kahlua liqueur. While you can leave it as is, we prefer to give it a light swirl to ensure all the flavors meld.

4. Add Milk or Whipped Cream

If you're in the mood for something lighter, add a splash of milk to finish the Kahlua coffee off. Otherwise, feel free to add whipped cream.

5. Garnish with Chocolate Curls

If you're looking to make your drink extra indulgent, top off your Kahlua coffee recipe with some homemade chocolate curls. You'll need a microwave, some butter, semi-sweet chocolate, a sheet pan, and some spatulas (2).

6. Enjoy

Pair it with pistachio gelato or coffee cake to make this coffee cocktail even more of an occasion.

What Is Kahlua Coffee?

Kahlua coffee is one part Kahlua and two parts freshly brewed coffee. Though that's the basic recipe, we believe in making every coffee experience memorable. So our coffee cocktail isn't complete until we've added a splash of milk, whipped cream, and chocolate curls.

Speaking of wonderful coffee experiences, we highly recommend taking a tour around the coffee world with our massive list of coffee drinks.

While the Home Grounds team prefers to make their coffee liqueurs, we understand the need to use shortcuts for convenience's sake. For this Kahlua coffee recipe, the store-bought liqueur will work just as well, too.

Where Did Kahlua Come From?

First brewed in 1936 in Veracruz, Mexico, Kahlua liqueur was born when coffee growers and a chemist decided to marry the sweet and complex flavor of high-quality arabica coffee beans with distilled rum. And for the past eighty plus years, it's served as the base for a bevy of delicious coffee cocktails, including the classic White Russian and Canadian B52.

How Is Kahlua Made?

Kahlua coffee liqueur combines fresh, shade-grown coffee with distilled rum made with sugar cane juice. After the coffee cherries have been harvested, they are processed and then left to dry for up to six months in large burlap bags. While they rest, workers extract the juice from freshly harvested sugarcane, and this juice is combined with water and then distilled.

Finally, the coffee beans are roasted and placed in distilled spirits. The freshly brewed coffee and sugarcane rum will rest for four weeks, creating that iconic coffee liqueur we all know and love.

Our homemade Kahlua Liqueur Recipe

Kahlua liqueur is the base for a whole world of weird and wonderful coffee drinks. While the Kahlua liqueur above takes years to make, our recipe takes far less time. We combine boiling water, white sugar, brown sugar, instant coffee, whole vanilla bean, and vodka to create a quick coffee-flavored liqueur. This Caramel-vanilla  coffee liqueur is a great base for many of our other coffee cocktails, too.

While it's more convenient to use the store-bought coffee liqueur, we find that our homemade recipe is cheaper, preservative-free, and definitely more delicious.

Like coffee cocktails? Here are some more recipes to try.

• Carajillo Recipe: How to Make This Mexican Coffee Cocktail
• How to Make Irish Coffee (A Simple Recipe)

What Kinds of Black Coffee Can You Use?

You can use any coffee brewing method like the Aeropress or Moka pot to make black coffee. But for best results, Home Grounds recommends medium to dark roast coffees, as they'll have the requisite sweetness and boldness to complement your Kahlua coffee-flavored liqueur.

And for a twist on the traditional Kahlua coffee, we recommend pairing your homemade caramel Kahlua with the citrusy, cinnamony notes of our Mexican coffee recipe.

What Is the Ideal Kahlua to Coffee Ratio?

You'll want one part Kahlua coffee liqueur to two parts fresh-brewed coffee for the most balanced coffee cocktail. But, as always, follow your palate and what you like best.

Also, if you're making this into cold brew coffee cocktails, you may need to increase the ratio of cold brew coffee to Kahlua.

Final Thoughts

Home Grounds has given you a basic recipe to set you off to an amazing day. As with any coffee drink, feel free to make this your own and indulge responsibly.

Have you tried it? Tell us about your Kahlua coffee experience in the comments below.