[imagesource: Adobe Stock / Andris]

Holidaying in Spain is dangerous.

You crack a drink around noon because you’re on holiday, and then you continue through until dinner.

The problem is that dinner doesn’t come along at 7PM to line the stomach and save you from yourself. Instead, you’re often only eating between 9PM and midnight, by which point you could have done some damage.

If you intend to carry on festivities (I can’t stress this enough – you’re on holiday and you’ve earned this) a coffee-based drink might hit the spot.

We’ve all dabbled in Irish Coffees but when in Spain, right? Enter the Carajillo, a drink that’s a blend of espresso coffee and brandy.

196 Flavors has the lowdown:

The word, carajillo, is taken from the Spanish word “coraje”, which means “courage”. Or from the Catalan expression, “ara guillo”, meaning “now I am leaving in haste”.

The origin of this drink can be traced back to the Spanish colonial history of Cuba. At the time, the soldiers of the colonial troops mixed coffee with brandy or rum to give themselves “courage”.

The modern-day equivalent would be to smash a Carajillo before going out to a bar or club when you’re over the age of 35, where you may have to brave the dancefloor. There’s also the added bonus of the coffee warmth to offset our cold South African winter.

A Carajillo is usually served in a small tumbler or shot glass, and drunk hot. The exact recipe varies from region to region but we’re most fond of the more rural variant of the Carajillo, made using grape brandy.

Thankfully, we have our own flavoursome grape brandy right here in the Cape. Karo Brandy is made from Colombar grapes, double distilled in copper potstills, and matured in French oak barrels for 13 years.

The final blend, produced under the watchful eye of Master Distiller Kobus Gelderblom at Oude Molen Distillery, results in a unique flavour combination of delicate dried peaches and litchi, with a hint of indigenous herbs from the Karoo bush.

You’ll find hundreds of variations of Carajillo but this recipe via Vindulge will get you up and running:

Image: Vindulge

If brandy isn’t your vibe (you can have too much Dutch courage, after all), you could always opt for rum.

A more finicky Spaniard may argue that using rum and espresso makes it a Café caribeño and not a Carajillo but we won’t allow ourselves to be bogged down by such matters.

For the rum-based variety, grab yourself a bottle of Elephantom African Dark Rum, inspired by a bull elephant from the Knysna Forest that would magically appear and disappear as he pleased.

Dark and mysterious, the rum is triple distilled from pure fermented cane molasses in a copper pot still and aged in bourbon casks.

A Carajillo is generally served with rum in Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela.

Just remember, you don’t need to be on holiday to try new things. There will be no judgement here if you embrace the magic of the Carajillo right here at home during these winter months.

[sources:196flavors&vindulge]