Sweet Jamaican Liqueur (Tia Maria)

Member Name: Fiver29

Product:	Tia Maria
Date:	06/01/09 (287 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pleasant Tasting

Disadvantages: Very sweet

For the first time in many years I had a drink of Tia Maria, someone kindly bought a bottle for me for Christmas, so I thought this would be an excellent time for a review.

~The Product~

Tia Maria is a Jamaican drink, it is coffee based with hints of vanilla. It's a dark liquid, which whilst very sweet it not at all syrupy.

As with most liqueurs it can be drunk neat, over ice or with a mixer, in the case of Tia Maria the most popular mixers tend to be cola or lemonade.

It is also the ideal drink to add to coffee to make a Jamaican Coffee.

It doesn't have a particularly high alcohol content at 20% by volume, and a full 70cl bottle is classed as 14 units of alcohol.

Calorie wise Tia Maria works out around 150 calories per 100 ml.

~My Thoughts~

Its been many years since I've had a Tia Maria. I used to drink it occasionally when I went out as part of a Black Russian, a cocktail made with Vodka, Tia Maria and Cola. It can also be part of a White Russian, although I have never been able to determine what exactly this is. It is taken for granted that it includes Vodka and Tia Maria, but depending on which bar you go to the third ingredient is either wine, lemonade or even milk. I prefer the wine option myself.

As I mentioned before the drink is very sweet. It is not a drink I could drink all night because after 2 or 3 I find it a bit sickly.
I tend to drink it with diet cola, mainly because I don't like normal cola. I find this pretty much eradicates the taste of the coffee, in fact it wasn't until I read the back of the bottle that I realised it was supposed to be coffee flavoured.

For the purposes of this review, I felt it was my duty to try the drink on its own ;-).

So trying it neat I found that the coffee flavour was still not over powering, which is good in my mind as I don't particularly like strong coffee. It is a nice smooth liqueur which doesn't catch the back of your throat in the same way as drinking a neat spirit would. It gives a nice warm feeling as it glides down your throat.

All in all I would say I prefer Tia Maria as part of a Black Russian, but that might be because my favourite tipple is vodka and it tends to take a bit of the sweetness away.

~Price~

A 70cl bottle is currently available at Tesco for £10.20, or £7.63 for a 35cl bottle.

Summary: A bit to swet for my liking, but an inoffensive drink.