Marrying the Italian tradition with greek grandma's cooking : homemade coffee liquer !

Homemade liqueur is a memory that takes us straight to the grandmother's kitchen table. Let's combine Greek with Italian traditions with a homemade coffee liqueur.

There is (or at least, not until recently) a family table that does not end with a small glass of homemade liqueur. Sour cherry or cinnamon liqueur, made with simple ingredients but with lots of love, was a classic digestive drink for closing a meal or dinner - and one of the reasons the children on the table were hurrying to grow up, in order to be able to taste grandmas’ liqueur. In Italy, the closure of a beautiful dinner is a traditional, digestible Italian espresso. Why not marry these two traditions? A homemade coffee liqueur (or, in fact, an espresso liqueur) is what you need.

Of course, homemade coffee liqueur is not limited to closing a dinner. It can be served even as an aperitif, and can serve as a basis for cocktails that require coffee liqueurs, such as martini espresso, or even coffee beverages that need a dose of alcohol, such as the espresso corretto.

The preparation of coffee liqueur is particularly simple, as it goes on simple, basic preparations of homemade liqueurs. All we need is ground coffee, a strong (but tasteless) alcoholic beverage, and a lot of patience - our liqueur wants almost a week to get ready.

What do you need for a homemade coffee liquer?

• 250 ml strong raki or tsipouro, without anise
• 25 gr ground coffee (espresso)
• 2 vanilla sticks
• 250 ml water
• 250 gr sugar
• 100 ml espresso

How is coffee liquer prepared?

• In a bottle, place the ground espresso and the vanilla stick
• Fill the bottle with alcohol
• Let the coffee be extracted for about 7-10 days, storing it in a shady or cool place or in the refrigerator.
• When the extraction is finished, filter very carefully using a paper filter or a towel and throw the vanilla sticks.
• In moderate heat, prepare the sugar syrup by stirring the water with sugar until the sugar dissolves completely.
• Let the syrup go to room temperature and mix with the alcohol
• Prepare 400ml of espresso, and mix it with the rest of the mixture.
• When the liqueur reaches room temperature, store it in the refrigerator. After a day, it is ready for serving.

• Because of alcohol and sugar, coffee liqueur can be stored for a long time. However, if you want to prepare a smaller quantity, simply divide the quantities, keeping in mind that the recipe you read "gives" about a liter of liqueur.
• You can serve it  at room temperature, in winter, and frozen in the summer.
• You can serve it either as a digestive, after a meal or dinner, or as an afternoon liqueur, always in small glasses that are suitable for liqueurs.
• The vanilla sticks are optional, however they help to reduce any bitterness that may result from the cold extraction of the coffee.
• For the coffee liqueur, you can choose a sweet coffee with intense aromas for both the ground coffee used in the first step and the espresso used in the second step. It is better to choose an aromatic 100% Arabica coffee, such as Lucaffe's Mr Exclusive, a blend of Puro or the Lavazza Tierra aromatic blend.
• Enjoy responsibly: the coffee liqueur remains an alcoholic drink.
• Keep the bottle with the liqueur away from children, ideally in the wine cellar with the other beverages, where children know they should not come close.

At the next dinner with friends, surprise them by combining a trip to Italy with a dip in the family tables of other times, closing the night with homemade coffee liquer!  

photo by: https://bit.ly/2C3mPgX