Kahlua
© Denzil Green
Kahlúa® is a Mexican-made coffee-flavoured liqueur. It is dark brown, thick and very sweet.
Ingredients include coffee, corn syrup, sugar and vanilla bean. Many think there is chocolate in it, but there isn’t.
It comes in various flavours such as Mocha, French Vanilla, Hazelnut, Especial, White Russian, Mudslide, and of course, regular. It can be sipped straight up, used as an ingredient in desserts, as a flavouring for coffee or as a mix in cocktails such as White Russian, Black Russian, and B-52, etc.
The alcohol content varies between 20.0% and 35%, depending on the variety. Kahlúa Especial is made from premium Arabica coffee beans and has an alcohol content of 36%. It is also less sweet, and a bit thinner.
The top markets for Kahlúa are Canada and the United States
Kahlua has been made since 1936 by the Pedro Domecq company. Some sources say it first introduced into America in 1951 by Beverly Hills liquor importer Jules Berman [1] Yet, CooksInfo.com has found 1945 advertisements for it so it was clearly available in America before that.
Ad placed by “Family Beverage Stores” in Joplin,
Missouri. Joplin Globe. 21 September 1945. Page 6B.
In the first half of the 1950s, it was already being pressed into service as a dessert ingredient. In 1953, the menu for Antonio Biari’s “Cascade Terrace” restaurant at the Lake Merritt Hotel in Oakland, California advertised a “Kahlua Parfait” for 75 cents. [2]
Substitutes
Coffee flavouring extract.
 |
|
Amount
|
| Calories | |
190
|
| Fat | |
.15 g
|
| Carbohydrate | |
24.34 g
|
| Fibre | |
0 g
|
| Protein | |
.05 g
|
| Caffeine | |
4.85 mg
|
Literature & Lore
“With some people, Kahlúa is a ritual. Devoted as they are to orthodoxy, they drink it straight; in a cordial glass; after dinner. There’s definitely something bewitching about the brew. Many, charmed by the versatility of this captivating coffee liqueur, are compelled to exult in such devilish concoctions as the Black Russian, Brave Bull, Kahlia Sour. Still others swirl it into dazzling desserts. Consider the sorcery of this magical mixture from Old Mexico. And while you’re at it, consider the source, because what the Mexicans don’t know about coffee liqueur doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. Jules Berman & Associates, Inc., 9025 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, California. Kahlúa. 53 proof” — Advertisement in Commentary Magazine, June 1965. Page 10.
Language Notes
Kahlúa means “House of the Acolhua people” in the Veracruz Nahuatl language.
Sources
[1] Jules Berman & Associates, Inc., 9025 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, California. “Said former Beverly Hills liquor importer Jules Berman, who introduced Kahlua to the United States in 1951, “I think the whole industry is going to be hurt.” — Los Angeles Business Journal. “Liquor distributors pour $800,000 into anti-alcohol-tax campaign.” 17 September 1990.
[2] Advertisement in: Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California. 28 May 1953. Page 26.
Business Wire. Kahlua ‘Unleashes’ Major Holiday Marketing Push, Including New Television and Radio Advertising. Westport, Connecticut. 10 November 2003.