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Mr. Black Coffee Liqueur
About Mr Black Coffee Liqueur
One of the biggest gaps in my cocktail making adventures is coffee liqueur. In the past, I’ve found coffee liqueurs to be a bit too sweet, so I grew to prefer spirit forward or citrus cocktails. But, Mr Black Coffee Liqueur gave me a great excuse to step out of my comfort zone, since it is advertised as a coffee-forward liqueur.
Mr Black is a cold brew coffee liqueur from Distillery Botanica, an Australian distillery owned and operated by Philip Moore. Along with Tom Baker, Moore wanted to create a coffee liqueur that reflects Australia’s passionate coffee culture, and they take pride in hand bottling each bottle in their coffee roastery and distillery. The beans they use are carefully selected and ethically sourced Arabica coffee beans, and it’s combined with cane sugar and Australian wheat vodka to make the liqueur.
Bottle Specs
❖ Spirit: Coffee Liqueur
❖ Distillery: Distillery Botanica
❖ ABV: 25%
❖ Moderate Price
Tasting Notes
My Tasting Notes
❖ Color: Black
❖ Nose: Chocolate, Vanilla Extract, Coffee
❖ Taste: Thick mouthfeel, Much sweeter than the nose suggested, chocolate, coffee
❖ Finish: medium finish, sweet coffee
Cocktail
Paloma Negra
1 oz Mr Black
1 oz Mezcal or Tequila
1 oz Pink Grapefruit
Top with Soda
❖ Salt rim of glass and combine grapefruit juice, Mezcal, and coffee liqueur
❖ Add ice, top with soda, and add a grapefruit wedge garnish
When I first encountered Mr Black Coffee Liqueur, I had every intention to make an espresso martini. Unfortunately, I never figured out how to make espresso, but I did happen to have grapefruits and tequila, so I decided to make something from the Mr Black website, the Paloma Negra.
There were some things I really liked about this cocktail, but it did need some tweaking to suit my personal taste. The coffee and tequila combination was a pleasant surprise, and blended well with the citrus notes from the grapefruit juice. But, I think the overall balance was a little off, and the coffee flavor overpowered everything. I also think I needed to add more ice, because the soda made the cocktail a bit too thin.
Bottom Line
Mr Black Coffee Liqueur is pretty much exactly as advertised. It’s a boozy and coffee-forward liqueur with a good balance of sweetness that mixes well in cocktails. It was my favorite part of the Paloma Negra I tried making, but also works well in a more classic coffee cocktail like a White Russian. You might want to be careful with the caffeine though, as I was quite jittery after just one cocktail, but a regular coffee drinker should be fine.
I can also usually find Mr Black for a decent price in my area. My local Total Wine has it for about $24, but sometimes I see it for closer to $30. But, if you want to try it before committing to an entire bottle, they also sell a 200ml bottle for close to $10.
As always, drink responsibly.
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