A cold, concentrated cousin of the Irish Coffee with the cream and sugar stripped away — hot espresso and vanilla liqueur in equal measure, shaken hard over ice until a tawny foam rises and poured over fresh cubes. The liqueur's vanilla and citrus warmth rounds off the espresso's bitter edge, leaving something dessert-like and bracing at once.
Shaken · Rocks · On the Rocks
add
Add the Licor 43 (vanilla liqueur) and a fresh, hot shot of espresso to a shaker filled with ice.
shake
Shake hard until well-chilled and frothy — the hot espresso against the ice builds the signature foamy cap.
strain
Strain over fresh ice into a rocks glass.
No inventor is on record for the Carajillo, and its beginnings are uncertain — it is often called a Spanish drink, though the trail points tentatively to Cuba sometime in the 19th century. Its name is read as a nod to the Spanish "coraje," or courage, and the most repeated story has soldiers in colonial Cuba lacing their coffee to steel themselves before battle. Different regions settled on their own spirit — rum in Cuba, brandy in Colombia and Venezuela, mezcal or coffee liqueur in Mexico — and it is the Mexican pour of Licor 43 and espresso, equal parts and shaken over ice, that has become the drink's modern face.