In much of the world, Kahlua is sold as a very premium liqueur. Were I to walk to my local wine and liquor store for a bottle of Kahlua I'd pay almost 40$! Which, although I do like an occasional Mexican coffee, is steep indeed…

Fortunately, a friend recently showed me the trick to making my own, very Kahlua like, coffee liqueur, and it can be made for a fraction of the cost of the original – I figure it costs me about 6$ a bottle.

It is very easy to do, only takes about 10 minutes of active work, and the patience to wait a few weeks to let the flavors meld. Once made, your coffee liqueur will keep safely on the shelf for at least 6 months - and probably for much longer.

As with anything, the quality of the ingredients does impact on the eventual taste, but the recipe as follows is for a pretty quick and easy and affordable concoction – after all, if you're going to spend a fortune on ingredients…why not just buy the original in the first place!

Homemade Coffee Liqueur (Kahlua-ish)

This won’t be an exact replica of the original, but it will be pretty close.

• ½ cup of instant coffee (Not decaffeinated)
• 11/2 cup of sugar
• 2 cup of water
• 2 Tbls vanilla extract (imitation is fine)
• 1 750 ml (26 oz…a fifth) bottle of generic vodka

1. Mix the coffee the sugar, the water and the vanilla together in a saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Let it all simmer together for about 10 minutes before removing from the heat.
2. You want to have about 3 cups of coffee "syrup" at this point. Measure, and if you’re short, add a bit of water in to top it off.
3. Mix in the entire bottle of vodka (40% alcohol)
4. Store in clean bottles (old wine bottles or water bottles will work just fine – make sure to sterilize them by rinsing them out in boiling water first.)

The liqueur is drinkable immediately, but will get far better after about a month of aging. Serve as a substitute for Kahlua in cocktails such as the mudslide, in Mexican coffees or Monte Cristo coffees or enjoy straight up over ice cubes.

This does not need to be refrigerated and will keep for many months at room temperature. The alcohol content of the coffee liqueur is approximately 20%.