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Asiatic coffee

Cartagena, Campo de Cartagena, Murcia

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Asiatic coffee

Food and drink · Cartagena, Campo de Cartagena, Murcia

The asiático is a 20th-century coffee drink originating in Cartagena, widely consumed in the Campo de Cartagena and in the rest of the Region of Murcia. It is served in a thick glass cup whose shape sets the proportion of the ingredients: coffee, condensed milk and brandy, to which some variants add Licor 43, lemon zest, cinnamon and coffee beans. Its origin is attributed to Pedro Conesa Ortega, who in 1947 is said to have devised it in his bar in El Albujón by mixing the carajillo with the belmonte, although a 2019 book documents the drink in Cartagena years earlier. Its name is thought to have replaced that of ruso (Russian) because of its political connotations during the Franco era. Since 2011 the Ruta del Asiático has been held, with venues offering their versions at a fixed price.

Photo: P4K1T0 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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