Tia Maria Coffee Liqueur is a Jamaican classic built around cold-brewed 100% Arabica coffee, blended with Jamaican rum, a hint of vanilla and sugar to a smooth 20% ABV. Housed in its sleek black bottle with the signature red ribbon logo, it is made using a patented cold brew method that draws out the coffee's flavour without the bitterness of heat extraction, giving a liqueur with genuine depth rather than a simple sugary coffee syrup.
The nose is bold and dark, all fresh-brewed coffee and bittersweet chocolate with a soft waft of vanilla underneath. On the palate it is rich and velvety, dark roast coffee to the fore, rounded out by cocoa and a creamy vanilla sweetness that keeps it from tipping into bitterness. The finish is smooth and lingering, the coffee character trailing on long after the vanilla has faded.
Tia Maria was first created in Jamaica in the 1940s, its recipe reputedly salvaged from family papers during the turmoil of the Second World War and named in tribute to the story behind it. Built on the island's rich coffee-growing heritage, it has gone on to become one of the world's leading coffee liqueurs, equally at home served over ice, stirred into coffee, or shaken into an Espresso Martini.
