The Stranger

Some say the Spanish first united coffee and alcohol. Moorish conquerors from the Umayyad caliphate brought the Iberian Peninsula coffee beans; conquistadors returned from the Caribbean with blood on their hands and “a hot, hellish, and terrible fuddling” called rum. According to lore, “the rumbullion man” walked the docks of Lisbon—the JFK Airport of the 16th century—selling the two mixed restoratively together to shivering sailors. Present-day Spanish coffee is unsweet, unexpectedly complex, and exactly the giddyap-whoa that winter requires. Bartenders hate it; if they make one, with its enticing blue flame, they’ll be making them all night. Order it anyway. (Il Bistro, Rob Roy, Vito’s, any other fine cocktail bar) by Bethany Jean Clement

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