For Minnesota’s distillers, coffee is the liqueur du jour. Du Nord Craft Spirits recently released Café Frieda. Norseman Distillery recently teased one as well.
And now, Northfield’s Loon Liquor Company—with three primary spirits under their belts (Loonshine, MetropoliGin, and Wheaton Barley Vodka) and with the February chill in everyone’s bones—figured the time is right to bring to market their own coffee liqueur, Lac Coeur.
“It has half the sugar of Kahlúa and it’s much smoother,” says Mark Schiller, co-owner of the distillery making the USDA-certified organic liqueur. In fact, it was a batch of homebrew Kahlúa that first inspired Schiller and Simeon Rossi to start Loon Liquor Company.
Lac Coeur starts as a high-proof version of Wheaton Barley Vodka that rests on organic vanilla beans for a month. Then they add Peace Coffee’s Yeti Blend cold press, a simple syrup steeped on cocoa nibs, and a small amount of molasses for body.
The result is a 25% ABV liqueur with a light and pure coffee flavor, that is smooth, easy-drinking, and surprisingly dry for as sweet as it smells.
If you visit their Northfield cocktail room, you can drink a Coeur & Peace—that’s a white Russian in which the coffee liqueur and cream are deployed from a nitrogen keg. It’s frothy and fun and all too easy to drink (as we learned when yesterday afternoon got a little loose at Growler HQ).
What else can you mix with Lac Coeur? Rossi suggests that many classic cocktails—Manhattans, old fashioneds—would benefit from just a half-ounce. It won’t add too much sweetness, rather a little background of coffee flavor.
“They added it to Scotch and soda at The Howe, and it was dope,” Schiller adds. “We call it the Bagpipes on the Beach.”
Further in the future, look for Loon Liquor Company to release some barrel-aged versions of their flagship Loonshine (perhaps with some peat infusions), a rye whiskey, and other liqueurs designed for no-fuss cocktail preparations.
They also hope a new still will triple their distilling capacity by the end of the year.
