Tia Maria Saga (Spanish Coffee)

[zdashamber]

I just bought a crap-ton of liquor. I stopped by the grocery store on the way home to get some unsweetened apple juice concentrate, since I sent my insomniac housemate an email around 2 Saturday morning suggesting I'd make her a pie, and then I remembered that she doesn't do sugar because of the insomnia, and then badgerbag gave me a bunch of apples she'd

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[rvdammit]

little wood-panelled bar near registration

Not, unsurprisingly, called The Black Rabbit Bar

[motleypolitico]

You can usually substitute Kahlua for Tia Maria. Tia Maria is just another coffee flavored liqueur, used to be more common about 20 years ago, and cheaper than Kahlua.

And the occasions when I've done flaming coffee, we did it a bit differently. Involved a large-ish metal bowl (since we were doing for a bunch of people), coiled orange peels with cloves stuck in 'em, brandy, sugar, cinnamon sticks, and nutmeg.

Pour a bunch of brandy and sugar into brazier/metal bowl, over sterno flame, soaking your coiled orange peels.

Light. Turn off lights.

Grab orange peel through tines of large fork. Lift well above rim of bowl, with low end of coil still in bowl.

Use metal ladle to pour flaming brandy down the coiled orange peel. Show off your l33t pyr0 skills, as blue flame flows down the peel.

When bored with orange peel tricks, grate cinnamon stick into flaming mixture. Toss ground nutmeg on for more sparkly bits. Can do this before orange peel if you really want to, since after this you're going to quench with coffee, and the orange peel

[zdashamber]

I'd thought Kahlua was more milky? I'll have to pick up a tiny bottle of that, too, and have a comparison taste test.

Your flaming coffee sounds like a production to see. Lotta work, but... dang.

Having cruised the internet a bit more, seems that many alcohols will flame... 80 proof being, perhaps, the lower cutoff. Though it sounds like for most you have to warm the booze in advance to get a vapor above the surface, which is perhaps more trouble than I want to go to, so it's probably a good thing I have 151... Hum. More experimentation is called for.

[badgerbag]

Oh, if only you had said. I have TWO things of tia maria in my cupboard... I'm not sure how or why, but there they are.

kahlua just isn't as good!!

[zdashamber]

Oh, wow, I hadn't known you guys had any liquor at all! Will have to have a sampling session at some point. :)

I was reconciled to the saga of aquiring the Tia Maria when I learned that it could be used to make White Russians, too, which are right up there on my list of favorite cocktails.