TASTE: Carajillo
Carajillo at Casita. Photo: Konrad Odhiambo/The Dishing.
Move Over Espresso Martini — Meet the 19th Century Carajillo.
Words: Susie Davidson Powell
Photos: Konrad Odhiambo + Susie Davidson Powell/The Dishing
The cocktail: Carajillo
The place: Casita Berkshires at Mass MoCA
The backstory: The (lightly) boozy espresso carajillo — ubiquitous across Mexico and Brazil - is a more glamorous Latin cousin of the espresso martini. Simply made with espresso and Licor 43 (a Spanish liquor whose 43-ingredient recipe has been kept under wraps since 1948) it is shaken to a stiff, frappé-style foam and served on ice. Its citrus-vanilla notes are aromatic, while coffee, lightly sweetened by the Licor 43, makes it ideal after dinner or an alternative to dessert. And with Licor 43 coming in at half the ABV of vodka, it’s a lower-alc choice too.
As for it's nineteenth century origins, some say it was given to plantation laborers in Cuba, others that it was a pick-me-up in Catalonia as a variation on the Spanish tradition of serving coffee with brandy, rum or Colombian aguardiente like the Irish coffee, Italian caffè corretto or Norwegian karsk.
Where to sip it: Order the carajillo at Casita, a Mexican restaurant right on the Mass MoCA campus, where the focus on the the cooking of small villages extends to a spirit selection informed by the owners’ visits to Oaxaca to meet small Mezcal and tequila producers. Their drinks menu includes rare-to-find sour fermented pulque and ceremonial Mayan pox alongside mezcal-and-Mexican coke with lime, cervezas, natural wine and non-alc agua fresca or horchata.
For the build: Combine equal parts cooled espresso or cold brew and Licor 43 in a cocktail shaker. (Typically 2-ounces of coffee + 2-ounces of Licor 43, per cocktail.) Add ice and shake hard. Strain over a large ice cube in a rocks glass.
