%20(3).png)
The Making of Café au Bulldog
- Heather Ricker
- 7 days ago
- 5 min read
The People. The Place. The Spirits.
First and foremost: The People. And the people that mean the most to us are the people who make up our team. Every team member of North Point Distillery gets the opportunity to create a spirit of their choosing from concept to bottle through our Lighthouse Series limited releases. We lovingly refer to these releases as the Keepers’ Collection – a nod to our lighthouse logo, with our team being the lighthouse keepers.
In the collection so far, we have released Honeyed Bliss, a spiced whisky liqueur created by our former Junior Distiller; Forgotten Son, a corn-based New Make Spirit created by our Co-Founder, Struan; and our latest release: Cafe au Bulldog, a rum-based coffee liqueur created by me!
As both a coffee and cocktail lover, I always immediately skim cocktail listings for any drink that combines these two – so, think: espresso martinis, coffee negronis, boozy affogatos, White Russians, Carajillos… all are personal favourites. Cocktails like these may use straight espresso, but they may also use a coffee liqueur for an added kick of both coffee flavour and ABV.
My vision for my Lighthouse Series project was a flavour bomb of a coffee liqueur, using a spirit base of rum distilled with spices and botanicals specifically chosen to enhance and complement the coffee flavour.
With the help of our Junior Distiller, Avery, and Head Distiller, Greg, I set to work to answer some key questions:
How do we pack as much coffee flavour into the spirit as possible?
Which coffee beans should we use?
What can be added to boost/enhance the coffee flavour?
What can be added to complement the coffee flavour?
How will the chosen sweetener affect the flavour profile?
What makes a liqueur enjoyable to drink?
Because distilling coffee beans can create a very acidic flavour, we decided against adding coffee beans to the rum base distillation. Instead, we chose ingredients that complement coffee: cardamom, cinnamon, tonka beans, cacao nibs, and cassia; we added these directly to the copper pot still during the rum distillation for a bold, punchy profile.
This distillate gave us a beautiful spiced rum, just aching for some coffee flavour. We then proofed down a portion of this distillate and used it for an infusion with whole coffee beans and whole vanilla pods. We ran through 3 benchtop versions of these distillations and infusions to get the recipe just right.
During this process, we were researching sustainable UK coffee roasters and stumbled upon Glen Lyon Coffee Roasters – a fellow B Corp-certified company. After speaking with their team, they sent us three bean offerings to sample. We conducted a cupping of these – led by Greg, an avid coffee enthusiast – and we decided the True North offering would be the best suited for our coffee liqueur: with tasting notes of raspberry/black currant, tobacco, vanilla, nutty, salty, whipped cream, and caramel/toffee, it was a no-brainer.
The coffee beans would be used for the infusion and for the dilution. Instead of diluting the alcohol using water – which would dilute the flavours as well – I suggested we take the water we would use for the dilution and make a cold brew coffee. This would keep the coffee flavour strong (and even stronger) while bringing the spirit down to the preferred ABV.
After a few benchtop exercises for coffee-to-water ratios, something was still missing. Avery then suggested we add cacao nibs to the cold brew to enhance those creamy caramel notes in the coffee beans – and this was exactly the right call.
At this point, we had the cold brew, we had the distillate, and I knew I wanted to bring a little bit of Canada to the recipe and sweeten the liqueur using Maple Syrup; however, when we combined these, the mouthfeel was just a bit… off. It was like we had a cold brew, a spiced rum, and some maple syrup instead of a coffee liqueur.
Having experience with brewing, Greg had worked with lactose. He suggested it might be the missing ingredient, adding a velvety mouthfeel to the liqueur and uniting the elements. He was spot on. Adding lactose was the cherry on top, beautifully bridging the ingredients and finalising the recipe.
When this project began, I had a clear vision for the label: simple name, simple label; clear and concise. Throughout the project development, unfortunately my 10-year-old English Bulldog, Maisie, suffered health issues, with consecutive complications that led my husband and I to wonder if she would be with us much longer. Over those months that clear vision of a simple label dissipated and was replaced with a strong desire to pay tribute to – and maybe even immortalise – my sweet bulldog. She has travelled with me from Canada to Scotland, from single to married, from one career to another, and so it only felt right to put her wrinkly mug on the label of another milestone: my first spirit – she’s still with us, by the way, and doing much better; this story has a happy ending!
The art style and name pay homage to my favourite city: Paris. The simple blue sketching on a white background nods to Parisian café menus and completes what has seemingly become the project theme of My Favourite Things: coffee, Canada, Maisie, Paris, and cocktails.
The final product is a 27% ABV rum-based coffee liqueur with notes of vanilla and chocolate on the nose, rich coffee and jammy fruit on the palate, and a long, velvety latte finish. Add it to your cocktails, pour it over ice cream, or jazz up your coffee – there’s no wrong way to enjoy it, and in fact, there’s no way to not enjoy it. Even if coffee is not your thing, it’s got enough complexity that it’s just really delicious.
So that’s how we made Café au Bulldog. It was a project completed months past the expected release date, and we ran into plenty of hiccups such as lower yields due to liquid absorption and too-efficient filtration, so it’s a smaller small-batch than anticipated, but I am so happy it’s here, and I really hope you love it.
It’s truly been a passion project for me, and I can’t wait to hear your feedback!
If you want to pick up a bottle of this before it’s gone – and you definitely do – head over to our website to get it through our webshop, or shop locally in Thurso at select retailers or visit our Distillery Shop.
Also, Maisie says hi!
Comments