You might have heard of Kahlúa. It’s only the world’s best-selling coffee liqueur. If you’ve ever had a White Russian or Espresso Martini cocktail you’ve more than likely tasted it, or if you’ve ever been to any bar pretty much anywhere you’ll have noticed it’s something of a back-bar staple.
However, there is one about Kahlúa that isn’t well known and feels almost inexplicable, to be honest. It’s Mexican. Yep. How many of you just always assumed it was Hawaiin? Be honest with yourselves...
In fact, the word Kahlúa is actually Nahuatl, and means ‘House of the Acolhua People’. Kahlúa hails from the eastern state of Veracruz, Mexico, where Pedro Domecq began producing it in 1936. By 1940 Kahlúa was being exported to the US market, such was its popularity.
The sweet and rich coffee-flavoured liqueur is made from a combination of rum, corn syrup, vanilla bean and arabica coffee beans, the harvesting of which means a bottle of Kahlúa can take up to seven years to produce.