Tia Maria is a coffee liqueur made originally in Jamaica using Jamaican coffee beans. The main flavor ingredients are coffee beans, cane spirit, vanilla, and sugar, blended to an alcoholic content of 31.5% (alcoholic content as sold has been reduced to 26.5%).
It’s actual history is difficult to ascertain. The historical fable of its origins dates it to the 1700’s. Supposedly, a young Spanish girl was forced to flee the family plantation during a conflict. She was accompanied by a sole servant who carried a bit of jewelry and the recipe for the family liqueur. In honor of the woman’s help, the girl named the liqueur “Tia Maria,” her name for the woman who had helped save her life. One account of its history says that a man named Dr. Evans discovered the drink after World War II, and he began reproducing it. Since the company called Tia Maria International Limited was incorporated in 1929, this seems unlikely. This story of Dr. Evans devotion to the drink is part of the official website’s history, however. According to some sources, it was actually created in Jamaica in the 1930’s. The Jamaican company Lascelles supposedly manufactured the concentrate from which the liqueur was made, at least, up until the time it was sold by Pernod.
Info gleaned from Wikipedia
