Murray & Yeatman launches ‘world-first’ liqueur distilled from used coffee grounds

A distillery in Sussex has created the world’s first alcohol produced from upcycled coffee grounds.

Called Realizzato, the coffee liqueur has launched via DTC (rsp: £22/70cl) ahead of a supermarket debut set for later this year.

Inspiration for the tipple came from a peer-reviewed paper published in a scientific journal in 2014.

After figuring out how to distil alcohol from used coffee grounds, and developing the process for large-scale production, the Sussex-based Murray & Yeatman landed on a recipe for Realizzato – a coffee liqueur that uses sugar from used coffee grounds as its base alcohol.

The sugars are extracted from the grounds to be fermented and distilled, before being diluted, mixed with sugar and caramel and bottled.

The resulting liquid had a “fresh coffee taste” that differed from “synthetic” coffee liqueurs currently available in the UK, said Murray & Yeatman CEO Rob Murray.

Realizzato was also “one of the most environmentally-friendly alcoholic drinks in the world”, claimed Murray & Yeatman.

The liqueur helped reduce CO2 emissions by using coffee grounds that would otherwise go to waste, whilst the product was packaged in fully recycled glass bottles with a recycled label, said Murray.

“Consumers nowadays are very sustainably minded,” he said. “So when we designed Realizzato, we said there’s one thing in being able to create an alcohol which is a sustainable base, but actually, let’s start looking at everything else.”

Having launched via DTC this month, Realizzato would now begin rolling out to London-based wholesalers and had secured distribution in grocery multiples from “later this year”, said Murray.

“For a small-batch producer, we’ve done fairly well to keep it close to the price mark of Tia Maria and Kahlúa,” he added.