In 2024 Vogue predicted the espresso martini’s reign was ending and named the carajillo as the caffeinated cocktail to replace it. The carajillo is simply coffee combined with a spirit, often served in a small glass with a cinnamon stick or lemon peel, and it has no fixed recipe. Its origins are murky but tied to Cuba, where coffee and sugarcane shared the same climate and labor, making rum the natural partner. From there the drink behaves like an agricultural template, taking on whatever spirit grows nearby.

In Colombia and Venezuela it leans on brandy, following Spanish colonial trade in Brandy de Jerez, while Mexico uses smoky mezcal or liqueurs such as Kahlúa, Tia Maria, and Licor 43. Cousins include Irish coffee and the Italian caffè corretto made with grappa. In Costa Rica from roughly the 1950s to the 1970s, men in cafes ordered a snifter of brandy and a separate cup of hot black coffee, then poured the coffee into the snifter themselves so the heat released a cloud of aroma trapped by the glass. The episode also traces how the habit changed language in Catalonia.

• Licor 43 is a Spanish liqueur made with 43 herbs, spices, and citrus elements.
• Mezcal’s pit-roasted agave layers smoke onto the roasted notes of the coffee.
• Oak tannins in brandy give the South American version a smoother, velvety mouthfeel.
• Catalan has a phrase for the act, rebentar el cafè, meaning to burst the coffee.
• Standard Spanish has no equivalent single verb for spiking a coffee this way.