We put a touch of amaretto, an almond flavored liquor, into a cup of coffee.

It’s no secret we at CoffeeSphere love coffee cocktails. It’s coffee and alcohol in one. What’s not to love?

We put a touch of amaretto, an almond flavored liquor, into a cup of coffee and topped it with a generous heap of whipped cream for a delicious warm coffee cocktail.

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You can also make this into a non alcoholic version by keeping the same almond and coffee flavor but without the alcohol. We’ll show you how.

This is an easy way to give your coffee an extra kick, or a different complementing flavor than your usual cup of coffee.

Plus, if you’ve made tiramisu and used amaretto, you likely have plenty of it left (like we do!) so this is another way you can use up that amaretto.

What is amaretto?

Amaretto is an almond flavored liquor that originated in Italy. The word amaretto in Italian translates to little bitter.

Where the almond flavor comes from varies from brand to brand. For example, DeKuyper’s amaretto (made in the Netherlands) is made with almonds, vanilla and citrus distillate.

And Amaretto Lazzaroni from Italy is made by infusing Amaretti di Saronno cookies. Others like Disaronno have kept their recipe a secret since the 1600s.

For this amaretto coffee, I used amaretto from Luxardo. Their almond flavor comes from pits of cherries, peaches and apricots.

Amaretto is used for cocktails and for culinary purposes like for making tiramisu or adding a few splashes to an affogato.

Amaretto Coffee Ingredients

1 cup coffee (I used Illy Intenso Whole Beans)
1 tablespoon amaretto
and/or 1 tablespoon amaretto syrup
Whipped cream
Cocoa powder/ground cinnamon (optional)

Coffee

For this recipe, I used Illy Intenso. I found this intense dark roast paired nicely with the almond flavor of amaretto.

Illy coffee is sold in cans that use a natural pressurization technology exclusive to Illy. Since roasted coffee loses its aromas when in contact with air, this technology preserves the freshness of the roasted coffee and traps the aromas. Plus the cans are recyclable! You can read more about the coffee here.

I prefer buying whole beans so I used a Hario Skerton Grinder to grind the beans. Then to brew it, I used a French press.

To use the French press, I measured approximately 1.5 tablespoons of ground coffee to 8 ounces (1 cup) of water. I pour hot water over the ground coffee, wait for about 4 minutes, then push the French press plunger down. Coffee is ready!

Amaretto

I used Luxardo Amaretto. The almond flavor in their amaretto comes from pits of cherries, peaches and apricots. I find it slightly sweet and wouldn’t mind drinking it on its own.

Luxardo is one of the popular brands of amaretto from Italy. The company is family owned and started in 1817 when Girolamo Luxardo and his wife Maria Canevari, moved to Zara (in Croatia) in 1871. The business was started to sell a liqueur Maria made from maraschino cherries. Today, they make other fruit based liqueurs, including amaretto.

Amaretto Syrup

For a non alcoholic version of amaretto coffee, use amaretto syrup in replacement amaretto.

I used Monin Amaretto Syrup, which has an almond and caramel cookie taste. Monin’s syrups are known to work well with coffee and do not contain any artificial flavors or ingredients.

You can also add in a teaspoon or two of this syrup in addition to the alcoholic amaretto for a little extra sweetness.

Whipped cream

You can use store bought whipped cream to top your amaretto coffee, or make your own with heavy cream. Put a ¼ cup of heavy cream in a bowl and mix it with an electric mixer on medium speed until stiff peaks form.

Then top the whipped cream with a sprinkle of ground cinnamon or cocoa powder.