Kahlua Recipe

The holidays bring with them a special sense of warmth - closeness and tradition expressed through sharing recipes, crafts and long-standing family outings, it’s a time we at Groundwork relish. 

In the spirit of sharing that the holidays bring, we’re happy to pass onto you a few traditions from our team. Starting with a long and storied recipe, with roots in Africa, and the eventual translation to tradition in California: Kahlua.

This recipe comes from a member of our marketing team, whose mother brought the recipe back from years living in South Africa. She recalls the years of each first week of December, brewing the adult beverage in her mother’s kitchen to bottle and hand out as hostess gifts at all the inevitable holiday gatherings their family would attend. 

What stood out to us about this super simple recipe is that one of the key ingredients is... coffee. Naturally, anyone reading the Groundwork Coffee blog likely has coffee in spades. (The other ingredients are vodka, sugar and vanilla bean extract: simple.)

Ingredients 

• 4Tbsp Instant Coffee
• 1pint water
• 1kg dark brown sugar
• 1/2 small bottle vanilla extract
• 1 750ml bottle + 1/2 cup vodka

Instructions

• Boil sugar and water until sugar melts (watch it carefully).
• Mix coffee, water and vanilla together - add to syrup.
• Remove from heat and allow to cool.
• Mix in vodka.
• Once all ingredients are well mixed, bottle and share!

Let us know if you give it a go and watch your friends and family delight in something fun, delicious and homemade.