Specialty Coffee

Coffee Schnapps from the Silver Skin of the Coffee Bean

The Coffee Schnapps „Kaffee Spezialität” is produced exclusively for Kaffeerösterei Kirmse. A genuine Zwieseler Goldböhnchen bathes within it.

What is the Coffee Schnapps Made From?

Similar to Cafe Skin Liqueur, our coffee liqueur, the silverskin of the coffee bean, which arises during coffee roasting, serves as the raw material for the coffee schnapps. However, this delicate skin, which protects the coffee bean within the coffee cherry, is mistakenly regarded as a waste product of the coffee bean. The outer coffee cherry, as well as the silverskin, are immensely rich in nutrients and intensely flavorful. Not only the coffee bean is valuable. In many producing countries, a fruity fresh tea is extracted from the coffee cherry, known as coffee cherry tea or cascara tea, which enjoys great popularity due to its taste. Furthermore, it is pleasantly invigorating due to its high caffeine content. In some countries, the so-called pulp does not receive as much appreciation, but is then used as a natural fertilizer due to its nourishing properties.

How Was the Idea for Coffee Schnapps and Coffee Liqueur Born?

Coffee roaster Jens Kirmse conceived the inspiration for the coffee schnapps together with Mr. Wagerer, with whom he had already realized the idea for the coffee liqueur, derived from the silverskin, and which enjoys great popularity among our customers. Mr. Wagerer was and still is a customer of the coffee roastery and, in addition to coffee, also gladly took the thin skin of the coffee bean remaining after roasting for fertilizing his meadows, where his Wagyu cattle graze. Mr. Wagerer recognized the potential of the healthy, nutritious, and flavorful silverskin. "One can certainly do more with this" - and thus the idea for the coffee liqueur was born.

How is the Coffee Schnapps Produced?

To obtain the coffee schnapps and capture the flavor of the silverskins in the spirit, the parchment-like skins are steeped in suitable high-proof alcohol, so-called potable alcohol or rectified spirit. They remain in this until the silverskin has released its flavor compounds into the alcohol.

Once the maceration process is complete, the mixture of alcohol and silverskin is distilled, resulting in a high-proof coffee spirit.

The high alcohol content of the coffee spirit must then be reduced to drinking strength to make it palatable. Reducing the alcohol by volume concentration to 40.6% Vol. also rounds off the coffee schnapps flavor profile.

The coffee spirit is crowned with a „Zwieseler Goldböhnchen”. The coffee bean is added to the coffee schnapps during bottling.

Adjusting the drinking strength and determining the number of coffee beans until the coffee spirit tasted as envisioned required a good deal of experimental spirit.

But the experimentation paid off.

The Coffee Bean's Little Hat Flies Off

The silverskins carry the flavor of the respective coffees they come from. In the initial phase of roasting, the coffee bean increases in volume, and the silverskin separates from the coffee bean. Through the cyclone, a component of the coffee roaster, the silverskin is separated from the coffee beans by an airflow. The flavor characteristics are further accentuated by the roasting process. Coffee roaster Jens Kirmse affectionately calls the moment the silverskin separates from the coffee bean: „Der Kaffeebohne fliegt das Hütchen weg” (The coffee bean's little hat flies off).

Coffee Know-How: Where Is the Silver Skin of the Coffee Bean Located?

The silverskin, as a direct layer, protects the two seeds of the coffee cherry, which are the coffee beans. These are in turn enclosed by the parchment skin, the pectin layer, as well as the pulp and the outer fruit skin.

Dry and Wet Processing - Crucial for Taste

During coffee processing, the green coffee seeds are extracted from the coffee cherry either by fermentation in dry processing or by machine in wet processing. The parchment skin and silverskin are mostly separated.

In dry processing, whole coffee cherries briefly float in water or are washed to remove impurities. Subsequently, the coffee cherries are laid out on drying patios. On these drying racks, they are then allowed to dry in the sun for approximately two weeks. Through the drying process, the coffee cherries shrink and change their color to brownish.

In wet processing, coffee cherries are filled into water tanks. During the subsequent mechanical treatment, only the outer fruit skin is removed; the fruit flesh remains. Through fermentation, these skins are dried and used as fertilizer during cultivation. The coffee beans, still covered with fruit flesh, are transferred to tanks where they soak and ferment for 12 to 72 hours. During this process, the fruit flesh decomposes and detaches. Once the fruit flesh has separated, the coffee beans, still enveloped in parchment skin and silverskin, are spread out on drying racks for 4 to 10 days to dry, and are hand-sorted and turned. Wet-processed coffee beans have a light beige color and are referred to as parchment coffee, as they are still surrounded by the parchment layer and silverskin.

Additionally, there is also semi-dry processing, where, after the initial treatment in which the outer fruit skin is removed, the sweet coffee beans still covered with fruit flesh are spread out on drying patios or racks for 7 to 12 days to dry and are regularly turned. These coffee beans have a slightly reddish to brown color. Here, too, they are referred to as parchment coffee, as this layer is still present.

Dry processing tends to produce sweeter and fruitier coffee, while wet processing yields clean, clear, mildly fruity coffee with a fine acidity.

All 3 types then proceed to the dry mill (beneficio) after approximately 2 more months, where the fruit flesh, parchment skin, and most of the silverskin are removed. The green coffee is ready!

By the way: The coloring of the remaining silverskin indicates whether the coffee bean was wet- or dry-processed. In wet processing, the silverskin remnants are light, while in dry processing, they are rather dark.

How Does the Coffee Spirit from the Silverskin Taste?

The clear coffee schnapps is a full-bodied spirit that captivates with the flavor characteristics of the various coffee varieties from Kaffeerösterei Kirmse. Furthermore, the different processing methods of the coffee beans and subtle roast notes come to the fore. The complex coffee flavor is rounded off by the „Zwieseler Goldböhnchen” that is allowed to float in the coffee spirit.

Ingredients

• Silverskin
• Spirit