Homemade Kahlua Experiment - Part 1

I've been cruising the internet for gift ideas and stopped when I came to a blog post titled, "12 days of Homemade Gifts" with a recipe for DIY Kahlua.  I've been thinking about making Kahlua and this recipe looked perfect - I had most of the ingredients !  There are so many versions and my guess is you can't go wrong with any of them.  I mean how could you with rum, vodka, sugar, coffee, chocolate - what could possibly go wrong?

First, what to use to mix and store all this goodness?  I had a stroke of genius - or what passes for genius in my world.  Behold the jar:

This jar of pickles was $3.47 and just the right size.  I pitched out the nasty pickles (not a fan of dill pickles and these were particularly nasty limp things) and scrapped off the labels.  Just to be sure there was no lingering eau de pickle, I pried off the silicone seal inside the cover.

Ingredients all assembled.  Out came the vanilla beans and cacao nibs that have been waiting for perfect recipe.  And here it is from Yum Sugar:

1 750 ml bottle vodka or white rum

1 1/4 cups dark rum, like Pampero

1 1/2 cups sugar3/4 pound whole coffee beans1 vanilla bean1 cinnamon stick1 tablespoon cocoa nibs, optional1 slice of orange peel, optional

DIRECTIONs

         Combine all of the ingredients in a resealable container. Shake hard to combine.

1. Label with the date and let sit in a cool, dark place for three weeks. Shake or stir the mixture several times of week.
2. Strain through cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer into a clean vessel. Use like you would Kahlua or any other coffee liquor.

I omitted the orange peel - not sure I want orange interfering with the coffee/ chocolate/ alcohol goodness, but that's just me.

Here is my jar all all filled.   I covered the ugly pickle lid so I can keep the jar on the counter and watch the magic.  (I did shake this pretty vigorously and the sugar still settled to the bottom.  More shaking in the days ahead).

Now I need to find some jars to decant my liqueur into and make some labels.  Stay tuned!