Warm Up With Amarula Cream

By Matt Domino October 28, 2014

warm amarula cream amarilla — Image used with permission by copyright holder

October is almost over, which means that Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Seriously, it’s going to come up fast, and you’re going to need plenty of gift and party ideas. One way to throw a curveball into your Thanksgiving (or Friendsgiving) gathering is to pick up a bottle of Amarula Cream.

You may be asking, “What is Amarula Cream?” Excellent question. Amarula Cream is a South African liqueur known as the “Spirit of Africa.” It is actually the second largest cream liqueur distributed worldwide, and it makes for a perfect cold-weather sipping drink or cocktail.

The core ingredient of Amarula Cream is the marula fruit—a small, yellow fruit (about the size of a plum) that is indigenous to South Africa. When the fruit is harvested (by hand), it is crushed and separated from the seeds, nuts and skins. The juice from the ripe marula fruit is then fermented, double distilled and aged for two years in French oak barrels. Once the aging process is complete, the liqueur is combined with fresh dairy cream.

Amarula Cream is light brown to caramel in color, with smooth, creamy taste. Don’t get it fooled with Bailey’s Irish Cream or Kahlua, though. The citrus in the marula fruit (which contains more than ten times the vitamin C contained within an orange), carries over into the finished product, giving Amarula Cream a distinctive flavor all its own.

The traditional way to serve Amarula Cream is neat over ice. However, you can also mix it with brandy and extra cream for a perfect after dinner drink—one that would fit right at home after a Thanksgiving Feast. The Amarula website also features a variety of cocktail recipes, such as the Dark Roast Amarula that combines espresso, orange peel, cinnamon and Amarula Cream to form a truly intriguing concoction.

With the holidays approaching, think outside the box. Don’t just fall back on egg nog, Bailey’s Cream, or even White Russians—try something new! Go out, find a bottle of Amarula Cream and enjoy the results.

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Topics

Liquor, Beer, and Wine

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Matt Domino is a writer living in Brooklyn. His fiction has appeared in Slice and The Montreal Review, while his non-fiction…

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