Amarula Mocha

2022 Let’s Get Blitzen: Cocktail Advent Calendar – Day 6 – Amarula Mocha. Warm up after your next snowball fight with a piping hot cup of Amarula Mocha. Chocolate, coffee, and the distinctive flavour of Amarula Cream Liqueur make for a divine trifecta.

This post is sponsored by Amarula.

Amarula is a velvety cream liqueur with a hint of toffee, vanilla and long-lasting finish from the Marula fruit. It is fermented, distilled, and then matured in oak for two years before being blended with cream. It’s the perfect coffee or dessert companion but equally delicious when served simply over ice.

If you’re not feeling up to recreating this cocktail, take your senses on a journey as you sip Amarula on ice. Unlike Irish cream liqueurs, that are often Irish whiskey blended with cream, Amarula is fruit-based with its spirit derived from the Marula tree. 

The fruit is picked from the trees, then the Marula fruit is fermented and distilled it in copper stills to convert it into a spirit. Then, aged in French oak barrels for two years before blending it with cream. 

Amarula and the elephants it bears on its label are intimately connected through its African roots and the Marula fruit. That’s why the Amarula Trust was created in 2002 with the aim of safeguarding the African elephants. 

In 2016, the Amarula Trust formed a partnership with the CEO, Dr Paula Kahumbu, of Wild Life Direct with the shared vision to drive conservation through education. With less than 400,000 elephants left in the world, and their numbers decreasing at an alarming rate, we need to work together to help protect the elephants – so that in the years to come we can continue meeting them beneath the Marula trees. 

This season, make your go-to-gift Amarula, a gift from the Marula tree that you can find at your local LCBO. It has a multitude of uses from on ice, in a cocktails, with your coffee or incorporated into your desserts.

Please enjoy responsibly, as always!

Join me on Instagram Stories tonight at 5 p.m. Eastern as I stir up this Amarula Mocha and make one for yourself while you’re at it!

Amarula Mocha

5 from 1 vote

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Amarula Mocha

Prep Time

10 mins

Total Time

10 mins

 

Warm up after your next snowball fight with a piping hot cup of Amarula Mocha. Chocolate, coffee, and the distinctive flavour of Amarula Cream Liqueur make for a divine trifecta.

Course: Drinks

Cuisine: Canadian

Keyword: Amarula, Amarula Mocha, Coffee, hot chocolate

Servings: 1

Author: Yvonne Langen

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• ½ oz spiced demerara syrup
• ½ oz water
• 1 cup hot coffee
• ¼ cup whole milk or dairy-free alternative
• 1½ oz Amarula Cream Liqueur
• ½ oz allspice dram*
• Garnish: whipped cream
• Garnish: dark chocolate shavings/curls
• Garnish: flaky sea salt

Spiced Demerara Syrup

• 2 cups demerara sugar
• 1 cup water
• 2 star anise
• 1 whole vanilla bean
• 6 whole cloves
• 2 cinnamon sticks

Allspice Dram

• ½ cup allspice berries
• 2½ cups navy-strength rum
• 200 g granulated sugar

Instructions

1. Add cocoa powder, water, and spiced demerara syrup to a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until cocoa powder is fully incorporated.
2. Stir in coffee and milk until steaming.
3. Add Amarula Cream Liqueur and allspice dram to a heatproof mug and top with hot mocha mixture.
4. Stir to combine. Top with whipped cream.
5. Garnish with dark chocolate curls & sea salt.

Spiced Demerara Syrup

1. Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a low boil, stirring frequently.
2. Reduce heat to medium low and let simmer for about 15 minutes until syrup is slightly thickened.
3. Cool to room temperature.
4. Carefully strain the whole ingredients out of the syrup. Once cool enough to handle, store the gingerbread syrup in a swing top bottle or mason jar and keep in the fridge. Syrup will keep for about a month.

Allspice Dram

1. Heat a heavy skillet over low heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Toast the allspice berries until fragrant, about 1 minute, then roughly crush.
2. Combine the rum and crushed allspice berries in a quart-sized glass jar, seal the lid tightly and give it a good shake. Steep for 10 days.
3. Strain the allspice-infused rum through a fine-mesh sieve into a small saucepan and add the sugar. Heat over low, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is fully dissolved, about 15 minutes. Cool to room temperature before storing in a glass jar or bottle.

Recipe Notes

*Alton Brown’s Allspice Dram recipe. If you can purchase St. Elizabeth’s Allspice Dram at a liquor store near you, that might be more efficient.