Coffee Drink
Café Asiático: Cartagena Coffee with Licor 43 and Condensed Milk
Café asiático is Cartagena’s small, sweet coffee cocktail with condensed milk, brandy and Licor 43. Cinnamon and lemon peel add a spiced citrus aroma; gentle layering makes the glass attractive before you stir it.
Drink Snapshot
- Caffeine
- About 75 mg (reference)Generic prepared espresso, 36 gActual coffee, dose and extraction change caffeine.
- Calories
- Estimated 135 kcalOne recipe with the named condensed milk and spiritsTrace garnish is excluded.
Serving, sugar and sources
- Serving
- 20 g (0.71 oz) condensed milk + 15 ml (0.5 US fl oz) brandy + 10 ml (2 US tsp) Licor 43 + 36 g espresso
- Made with
- Espresso, condensed milk, brandy and Licor 43 Original
- Sugar
- Estimated 15 g total. Named-ingredient estimate: 11 g from condensed milk, 0.12 g from brandy and 3.81 g from Licor 43 Original.
- Preparation
- About 5 minutes; espresso ready
Carnation and Pernod Ricard labels, REWE’s energy listing, Systembolaget’s Licor 43 sugar listing and generic USDA espresso composition. See the full calculation or label comparison.
Key Takeaways
- Choose café asiático for a small, sweet coffee with the warmth of brandy and the vanilla-citrus aroma of Licor 43.
- Stir after admiring the layers so the condensed milk sweetens the whole drink.
- A small heatproof glass works at home; measured ingredients let you make it without the traditional glass’s portion guides.
On This Page11 Sections
What Is Café Asiático?
Café asiático belongs to Cartagena, in Spain's Murcia region. The city's tourism office describes coffee with condensed milk, cognac, cinnamon, Licor 43 and lemon, served in a glass made for the drink. Despite its name, this page concerns that Cartagena specialty, not a general category of Asian coffee.
Its identity comes from the combination: concentrated coffee, sweet dairy, brandy and the liqueur's flavor. Licor 43 describes its Original expression as having citrus, botanical and vanilla notes. Use Original, rather than assuming the brand's coffee-flavored Baristo or another expression is the same ingredient.
What Does Café Asiático Taste Like?
Café asiático is concentrated and dessert-like, with a thick condensed-milk sweetness around the espresso’s roasted edge. Brandy gives the finish warmth, while Licor 43 adds vanilla and citrus. Lemon peel and cinnamon make the aroma feel brighter and more spiced than the milky base alone would suggest.
Compared with this site’s barraquito, this version has no extra plain milk or foam, so the coffee-and-spirit combination feels more compact. I prefer a light touch of lemon and cinnamon because their aroma lifts the sweet base while leaving the coffee and liqueur easy to notice. Stirring brings that sweetness into the first sip as well as the last.
Café Asiático Recipe
Have the espresso ready before assembling the drink. This home adaptation uses measured quantities rather than traditional glass markings.
Recipe
Café Asiático
- Makes:
- 1 serving
- Time:
- About 5 minutes; espresso ready
Ingredients
- 20 g (0.71 oz) sweetened condensed milk
- 15 ml (0.5 US fl oz) brandy, 40% ABV
- 10 ml (2 US tsp) Licor 43 Original, 31% ABV
- 36 g hot prepared espresso
- A small pinch of ground cinnamon
- A small strip of lemon peel
Equipment
- 120–150 ml (4.1–5.1 US fl oz) heatproof glass
- Scale and small millilitre measure
- Spoon
Method
- Put the condensed milk in a small 120–150 ml (4.1–5.1 US fl oz) heatproof glass. Add the brandy, then Licor 43.
- Slowly pour the hot prepared espresso over the back of a spoon into the glass.
- Add a small pinch of cinnamon and the lemon peel. Stir before sipping to combine the condensed milk with the coffee, then set the peel aside.
Estimated nutrition: 135 kcal and 15 g total sugar. Per serving, using Carnation, Martell VS and Licor 43 Original.
Recipe notes
Contains alcohol and milk. Use Licor 43 Original and sweetened condensed milk.
The nutrition example uses Carnation sweetened condensed milk, Martell VS cognac at 40% ABV and Licor 43 Original at 31% ABV. Cognac is a type of brandy. Unsweetened evaporated milk is not a substitute for the condensed milk in the base.
The 36 g portion is collected espresso. The espresso brewing guide explains how to prepare the coffee before assembling the drink. Pouring slowly can preserve a pale base for presentation, but some mixing is normal. Stirring afterward spreads that sweetness through the coffee.
The Asiático Glass and Recipe Variations
Use a 120–150 ml (4.1–5.1 US fl oz) heatproof glass for this home recipe. The traditional Asiático glass is part of local service. Murcia's tourism recipe uses its shape to guide portions, including condensed milk to roughly two fingers or its faceted section, brandy to taste and drops of Licor 43.
The producer's Asiático 43 uses a larger condensed-milk portion and adds evaporated milk. The table compares its quantities with this home version.
Swipe to see all columnsScroll to see all columns
| Ingredient | This home recipe | Licor 43's Asiático 43 |
|---|---|---|
| Condensed milk | 20 g (0.71 oz), weighed | 60 ml (2 US fl oz), measured by volume |
| Brandy | 15 ml (0.5 US fl oz) | 20 ml (0.7 US fl oz) Spanish brandy |
| Licor 43 Original | 10 ml (2 US tsp) | 20 ml (0.7 US fl oz) |
| Coffee | 36 g prepared espresso | One hot espresso |
| Finish | Cinnamon and lemon peel | Evaporated milk, cinnamon, lemon peel and coffee beans |
The table preserves the sources' units: 60 ml (2 US fl oz) of condensed milk is not 60 g (2.1 oz). If following the producer's version, choose a sufficiently large heatproof vessel and use its recipe rather than applying this smaller serving's nutrition estimate.
Cartagena’s Coffee and Its Distinctive Glass
Café asiático became closely tied to Bar Pedrín in El Albujón, which Cartagena’s city council credits with popularizing it from 1947. The connection is celebrated in a glass-shaped monument unveiled near the bar in 2025.
The drinking glass has its own local history. Carlos Díaz of the supplier José Díaz traces it to a sturdy vermouth glass shown in a Cartagena factory’s 1908 catalog. He explains that the stem was later removed to make the glass steadier on waiters’ trays. In 1955, his father commissioned its production from Vidur in Barcelona.
Adjusting and Serving Café Asiático
Start by weighing the condensed milk. The combination of that milk and a sweet liqueur makes additional sugar unnecessary in this formula. To make it less sweet, reduce the condensed milk rather than adding more alcohol to disguise the sweetness.
Use a small strip of the lemon's yellow outer peel and only a light cinnamon dusting. Too much white pith introduces an unwanted bitter element, while a heavy powder layer makes the first sip dusty.
For a non-alcoholic neighboring drink, make café bombón with coffee and condensed milk. Simply leaving out the brandy while retaining Licor 43 does not make an Asiático alcohol-free. This recipe also contains milk.
Asiático vs. Carajillo, Bombón and Barraquito
| Drink | Useful distinction |
|---|---|
| Café asiático | Cartagena combination of coffee, condensed milk, brandy and Licor 43, with aromatic garnish |
| Carajillo | A broader coffee-and-spirit drink; ingredients and hot or iced service vary |
| Café bombón | Coffee and sweetened condensed milk, without required alcohol |
| Barraquito | Tenerife layered specialty, commonly adding milk foam alongside condensed milk, coffee and liqueur |
Carajillo helps explain the wider coffee-and-spirits category. Barraquito is the closer visual comparison, but a similar layered glass does not make the regional names interchangeable.
Café Asiático Calories, Caffeine and Alcohol
This small version has an estimated 135 kcal and 15 g total sugar, with 75 mg reference caffeine. The estimate uses 20 g (0.71 oz) Carnation condensed milk, 15 ml (0.5 US fl oz) Martell VS, 10 ml (2 US tsp) Licor 43 Original and 36 g espresso.
Serving calculation and ingredient sources
Carnation's sweetened condensed milk lists 322 kcal per 100 g and 27.5 g sugar per 50 g. Our 20 g adds 64.4 kcal and 11 g sugar. Pernod Ricard's Czech product page lists Martell VS 40% at 227 kcal and 0.8 g sugar per 100 ml: 15 ml contributes 34.05 kcal and 0.12 g sugar.
REWE's product-label listing for Licor 43 Original gives 334 kcal per 100 ml, adding 33.4 kcal for 10 ml. Systembolaget lists 38.1 g sugar per 100 ml, so the 10 ml (2 US tsp) liqueur portion adds 3.81 g sugar. Together, the condensed milk, brandy and liqueur contribute 11 + 0.12 + 3.81 = 14.93 g total sugar, rounded to 15 g.
USDA prepared espresso, NDB 14210, gives 9 kcal and 212 mg caffeine per 100 g. The 36 g portion contributes 3.24 kcal and 76.32 mg reference caffeine. The ingredient energy total is 135.09 kcal, excluding the small cinnamon and peel garnish; display values are 135 kcal and 75 mg reference caffeine.
The specified spirits supply 9.1 ml of pure alcohol before mixing: 15 ml × 40% plus 10 ml × 31%. This is not a measured final alcohol percentage. Other product labels and coffee extractions change the estimates.
The CDC notes that caffeine does not reduce alcohol's effects.