Cocktail · Medium strength

Carajillo

Espresso over Licor 43 — Mexico City's favorite way to end dinner and restart the night.

How to order it: Shaken or built over ice. The 43's vanilla does all the sweetening required.

The story

Spain's old habit of fortifying coffee with brandy comes with a folk etymology — soldiers in colonial Cuba taking coraje, courage, before duty, the word slurring into carajillo — that historians treat as a good story rather than a record. The Spanish original remains a workingman's breakfast. Mexico performed the upgrade: somewhere in the late twentieth century, Licor 43 — the vanilla-citrus Spanish liqueur — replaced the brandy, espresso was poured hot over the rocks, and the result became Mexico City's unofficial closing argument, arriving at table when dinner ends and negotiations about the rest of the night begin. It endures because it is dessert, coffee, and a second wind in one glass.

Adjacent pours