Does Olive Garden's Tiramisu Contain Any Alcohol?

If you've never made tiramisu before, you might think of it as primarily an Italian coffee cake made with layers of coffee, custard, and ladyfingers. What you may not realize, however, is that tiramisu often contains alcohol, too. It's typically incorporated into the dessert the same way the espresso is, by soaking it up with ladyfingers. Many tiramisu iterations call for alcohol in the form of Kahlua or other coffee-flavored liqueurs, but more traditional recipes of the Italian classic are made with rum, brandy, or Marsala wine.

Since tiramisu is a no-bake dessert, the alcohol doesn't cook away and contributes a noticeably boozy flavor. Usually, you can tell if a tiramisu has alcohol as part of its recipe solely by the taste alone, and it isn't uncommon to leave the booze out completely. Since it can be difficult to discern the alcohol in Olive Garden's tiramisu, you'd be forgiven for assuming that it doesn't contain any, but the truth is it actually does. Specifics, however, are hard to come by.

When you dine at Olive Garden, it's generally understood that you're not getting authentic Italian food, but rather an Americanized version of it. Most people know by now that none of the "Tuscan" or "Sicilian" pastas are strictly traditional dishes from those regions. When it comes to the tiramisu however, Olive Garden's version isn't too far off from the real deal, because it's made with the same ingredients, including alcohol, according to the restaurant's website. As an Olive Garden representative further elaborated in an email reply shared to Facebook by a customer, the alcohol is partially cooked off but not entirely, which explains why the flavor isn't extremely prominent.

Neither Olive Garden's menu nor its website disclose what type of alcohol is used in the tiramisu, but judging by all the copycat recipes customers have created, it seems the majority are convinced that it's a coffee-flavored liqueur like Kahlua. Given that Olive Garden describes its espresso martini as "tiramisu in a glass," Kahlua is perhaps an accurate guess, as the cocktail is famously made with coffee liqueur (though the chain's own version used to use Patrón XO Café). Olive Garden has never confirmed whether this is the case, but instead stated in a Facebook comment that the recipe is a secret.

Olive Garden advertises itself as a family restaurant, so the fact that one of its most popular desserts is made with alcohol might surprise you. But what may be even more surprising is that the majority of Olive Garden's desserts — including the Sicilian Cheesecake, Strawberry Cream Cake, and Warm Italian Doughnuts — contain alcohol too, or at least enough traces of it to be listed on the chain's website.

It's possible that this wasn't always the case, as tiramisu and cheesecake have been on Olive Garden's menu since the 1990s. But nowadays, likely due to the restaurant's expansion since the '90s, the desserts aren't made by Olive Garden's in-house chefs. Instead they are frozen and thawed just before serving, and according to a Reddit user (whose profile suggests they are an Olive Garden corporate employee), they are sourced from a Darden Restaurants distribution center. But despite being frozen and made with alcohol, many customers still seem to love Olive Garden's tiramisu all the same.