A really sweet take on cold brew coffee liqueur, Tia Maria’s “Vanilla and 100% Arabica” cold brew bottle isn’t so much a new variation on the classic Tia Maria, but more just new branding.
Coffee mixed with a hit of sweet vanilla and sugar, it’s the Tia Maria you might have grown up with in a slightly different bottle, with branding that suggests the coffee has been extracted using cold brew, which is to say it’s made from cold water and coffee grounds blended together.
In recent years, cold brew alcohol has become a bit of a thing. This writer’s personal favourite is Mr. Black, but Tia Maria is still a decent nip, with dark coffee, vanilla, sugar, and rum, the latter of which acts the hit of alcohol for this drink.
Tia Maria notes in this brand that it includes cold brew, but it would be impossible to tell. This is definitely a coffee liqueur, and clearly a classic, though if you see it in a store with the note “cold brew” on the back, that’s really just a branding thing. Tia Maria even says so on its website.
As to how it tastes, if you’ve had Tia Maria before, this is pretty much the same: a coffee scent and flavour that doesn’t overpower, even if the sweet taste can. The 22 percent alcohol is hardly a huge hit, so don’t expect to feel paralytic after one drink. Rather, you can sip it gradually as an aperitif, or even just after for a bit of a mildly caffeinated night cap.
