ContemplativeFox
Kahlúa
Coffee Liqueurs — Mexico
Reviewed
November 24, 2020 (edited September 7, 2021)
Rating: 9/23
N: Nice and rich with a spicy, roasty note that suggests chocolate and coffee. A clear step up from some of the off-brand coffee liquors, but not a massive leap. It smells sweet but not too sweet and crucially smells entirely natural. There's some funk going on here with vegetal notes from the rum, but there are some sulfur notes in here as well. I smell a bit of mineral that I suspect is the confectioner's sugar.
P: OK, it tastes quite sweet, then some milk chocolate comes in, then in morphs into semi-sweet chocolate, then into coffee. Then, it doesn't become all that complex, but some spiciness comes out and the balance is maintained. The only real problem here is that the confectioner's sugar comes out and the coffee is still kind of mild. Aside from that, it's a rich and balanced palate. It's sweet, but not as sweet as some of the off-brand ones. I do get decent complexity out of it. The confectioner's sugar and high presence of chocolate relative to coffee are both problems, with the former making it seem lighter and cooler than it could otherwise have been.
F: The confectioner's sugar chalkiness is strong and it lingers along with a slight unpleasant cola flavor. The chocolate and coffee hang out for a while as well, but these flaws really jump out because they become more pronounced and even are joined by a hint of an artificial note. Still, this is better than the generic brands, so I am torn between 9 and 10. Ultimately, it is too sweet with too much confectioner's sugar, so I think a 9 is most appropriate.
12.0
USD
per
Bottle
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@ContemplativeFox Mr. Black seems to be the alternative with the best reviews. My concern is that Kahlua is so synonymous with coffee liqueur that I wonder if swapping it with another would throw a wrench in the popular cocktail recipes. I’ve done no research on this, so it may not actually be a valid concern.
I haven't tried any better ones @ctbeck11 . I mean, that 30 year old bottle of Kahlúa I found was better, but funky and certainly not something you can easily find. I hear My. Black is excellent though and I wouldn't be afraid of using Kahlúa for baking or where is isn't an overwhelming component.
Somehow, I’ve succeeded in never tasting this before. It doesn’t sound great. Have you tried any other coffee liqueurs that approximate the profile but in a better way?