Cocktails with Crème de Café liqueur
Crème de café is a sweet, low-proof coffee liqueur made by steeping roasted coffee in a neutral spirit and sweetening it heavily.
ABV20–25%
Substitutes for Crème de Café liqueur
Two things are in play, the roast and the cream, and most bottles nearby have only the first. Expect a thinner drink and correct the sweetness by taste rather than by measure, since the sugar varies more across this shelf than the flavor does.
On the label
- “crème de”
- Nothing to do with cream. EU rules set a minimum of 250 grams of sugar per liter for anything sold as crème de, and it is that sugar, not dairy, that gives the syrupy weight.
Often confused with
Coffee liqueurs without cream
Kahlúa, Tia Maria and their kind: the same coffee, none of the body. They swap one for one and leave a thinner drink that usually wants a little more syrup.
Irish cream
Cream and whiskey with little or no coffee, and it matches the texture and misses the flavor, which is the opposite trade.
