Tia Maria

Tia Maria is a dark coffee liqueur made in Italy using Jamaican coffee beans. The main ingredients are coffee beans, Jamaican rum, vanilla, and sugar, blended to an alcoholic content of 20%. Tia Maria was originally made in Jamaica, the historical fable of its origins dates it to the 17th century. A young Spanish girl was forced to flee Jamaica, and the family plantation during a conflict. She was accompanied by a sole female 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. This fable may have been part of a marketing campaign, however. In his book Jamaica Farewell, Morris Cargill recounts having had the idea for developing a coffee liqueur similar to one his aunt used to make. In 1946, he had, to no avail, tried to get the original recipe from his aunt and subsequently connected with Dr Ken Evans, who then developed the recipe. They partnered with others in Jamaica (Herbert Hart, Eustace Myers of Myers Rum, and Paul Geddes of Desnoes & Geddes) to produce the first five thousand cases, with Blue Mountain coffee supplied by Keble Munn. Cargill contracted the London ad agency J.P. MacNulty to brand the product and design the labels. They spent days trying to come up with a name, until Cargill recounted the story of trying to get his aunt's original recipe and Joseph MacNulty said, "I know exactly what we'll call that damn liqueur. Aunt Mary – Tia Maria."

Source: Wikipedia