¡Un Barraquito, por favor!, is a line that any visitor to the Canary Islands is likely going to overhear. The low-ABV coffee cocktail, served hot at bars, cafés and restaurants across the islands, is a part of the fabric of everyday life.
Legend has it that the Barraquito hails from Tenerife, the biggest island in the archipelago. Nestled off the coast of Morocco in the Atlantic Ocean, and part of Spain (at the time, the Crown of Castile) since the 15th century, the Canaries are home to one of the most pleasant climates in the world, with over 3,000 annual hours of sunshine and mild temperatures year-round. Maybe that’s why locals’ positivity is so contagious. It’s easy to be carried away here, and it’s easy to find yourself ordering this cocktail before midday, as locals do.
The Barraquito is a layered drink. Served in a tall, transparent glass, it calls for condensed milk, Licor 43, whole milk and coffee, with cinnamon and a lemon twist for garnish.
According to a Canarian dictionary edited by professor Marcial Morera, the drink was born in the mid-20th century and is intrinsically linked to a man, Sebastián Rubio, whose nickname was Barraco. He was a regular at the humble Bar Imperial in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where he always ordered a long espresso shot with a dash of condensed milk, a small glass of Licor 43, a piece of lemon peel and cinnamon.
“I was a boy, probably 6 or 7 years old, when Don Sebastián Rubio—Barraco—used to come here,” says Manuel García, the current owner of Bar Imperial, a family business that opened in 1961.
Eventually, Bar Imperial began to serve all the ingredients of Rubio’s order layered in a glass, likely to save time. According to García, there weren’t that many bars in Santa Cruz and theirs was very centrally located. “We had many customers from all over, and because they heard it often, they began to order it too.” Bar staff named the now-layered drink after its devoted fan, and a now-closed kiosk nearby also started selling it. Word spread.
The best time to drink a Barraquito is during the sobremesa, that post-meal moment when patrons relax and conversations flow. But the hot beverage is also a very popular midmorning drink, and some, like Rubio, order it for breakfast, or accompanied by a savory or sweet treat before lunch.
Because of its versatility, the Barraquito is one of those rare intergenerational drinks that’s popular among adults of all ages, and the cocktail has many iterations. Martín Hernández, now in his 60s, has been drinking Barraquitos for over 50 years, often before midday. “I used to love the one at the central market in La Laguna,” he says. “Back then, they had a special liqueur which they made by macerating Licor 43, coffee beans, cinnamon sticks cut into pieces and orange peel together… and then you could pour the amount of the special liqueur you wanted over it.” In the capital city of Santa Cruz, the spiked drink is now known as Barraquito Especial—whereas Barraquito skips the liqueur—and in other parts of the island, it is called Zaperoco.
One cannot help but admire the art behind a Barraquito’s layers. When it comes to the flavors, though, the order of the ingredients in the glass doesn’t actually matter. The drinking ritual requires sinking the lemon peel to the bottom of the glass and stirring vigorously, blending all the beautiful layers in the process. The aromatic peel acts as a flavor enhancer that ties together all of the ingredients.
“For us Canarians, the Barraquito is an icon,” says Yoni Mesa, a bartender at Maresía Atlantic Bar and native of Tenerife, whose cocktails focus on Canarian ingredients. “It’s one of the things that define us in the international gastronomic map, and it makes us proud. The balance of textures and flavors has no comparison.”
