The original tiramisù had no liqueur. The rum came later.
The recipe registered by Le Beccherie in Treviso — the restaurant that claims to have invented tiramisù in the 1970s — contains no alcohol. The Marsala, rum, and Kahlúa arrived with the dish's global spread and stayed because people assumed they were always there.
The tiramisù served at Le Beccherie in Treviso in the early 1970s — the version that its creators say is the original — contains no alcohol. No rum, no Marsala, no Kahlúa, no amaretto. Just espresso, mascarpone, eggs, sugar, savoiardi, and cocoa. The alcohol arrived later, added by restaurants that wanted to differentiate their version, or by home cooks who assumed it had always been there.
This is worth saying because the alcohol instruction appears in the vast majority of tiramisù recipes published outside Italy, stated with the confidence of fact. It is not fact. It is an addition — optional, common, and often pleasant — but not original and not necessary.
What the alcohol actually does
Rum or Marsala in tiramisù serves one structural purpose: it adds flavour complexity to the espresso soak. The bitterness of the espresso plus the sweetness of the sugar plus the burn of the alcohol creates a more layered flavour in the savoiardi. This is genuinely good. The original recipe simply achieves the same complexity differently — through the quality of the espresso and the zabaione.
“My mother made tiramisù every Sunday for thirty years. No alcohol, ever. It was the best tiramisù I have eaten in my life, and I have eaten tiramisù in three-star restaurants on four continents.”— ADA BONI, IL TALISMANO DELLA FELICITÀ
The practical argument
Removing the alcohol has one practical advantage that recipe writers rarely acknowledge: the tiramisù can be served to children. The original Treviso version was an everyday family dessert, not a dinner party showpiece. Its accessibility was part of its character. The alcohol, however pleasant, is an adult modification of a dish that was designed for everyone.
