Coffee Drink
Café Asiático: Cartagena Coffee with Licor 43 and Condensed Milk
Café asiático is a Cartagena coffee drink combining coffee, sweetened condensed milk, brandy and Licor 43, usually finished with cinnamon and lemon peel. This small home recipe measures the ingredients separately; local glass-guided preparations and the liqueur producer's larger version use different proportions.
Drink Snapshot
- Caffeine
- About 75 mg (reference)Generic prepared espresso, 36 gActual coffee, dose and extraction change caffeine.
- Calories
- About 135 kcalOne recipe with the named condensed milk and spiritsUses ingredient labels and a retailer's Licor 43 energy listing; excludes trace garnish.
Serving, sugar and sources
- Serving
- 20 g condensed milk + 15 ml brandy + 10 ml Licor 43 + 36 g espresso
- Made with
- Espresso, condensed milk, brandy and Licor 43 Original
- Sugar
- Total not established. The 20 g condensed milk contributes 11 g sugar; brandy and liqueur add more.
- Preparation
- About 5 minutes; espresso ready
Carnation and Pernod Ricard labels, REWE's Licor 43 product listing and USDA espresso composition; checked 27 September 2026. See the full calculation or label comparison.
Key Takeaways
- 1Use 20 g condensed milk, 15 ml brandy, 10 ml Licor 43 Original and 36 g prepared espresso, plus cinnamon and lemon peel.
- 2This named-ingredient serving is about 135 kcal and 75 mg reference caffeine. Complete sugar data is not available for the chosen liqueur.
- 3Layer gently for presentation, then stir before sipping. A small heatproof glass works without copying traditional glass markings.
On This Page9 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.
Café Asiático Recipe
Makes one small hot serving in about 5 minutes with espresso ready. This is a measured home adaptation informed by local descriptions, not an official conversion of the traditional glass markings. A 120–150 ml heatproof glass leaves headroom; its capacity is not the finished drink volume.
Ingredients
- 20 g sweetened condensed milk
- 15 ml brandy, 40% ABV
- 10 ml Licor 43 Original, 31% ABV
- 36 g hot prepared espresso
- A small pinch of ground cinnamon
- A small strip of lemon peel
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; another brandy can be used, but its label may differ. Unsweetened evaporated milk is not a substitute for the condensed milk in the base.
Method
- Put the condensed milk in a small 120–150 ml 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.
The 36 g is collected espresso, not dry grounds or millilitres. 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
The glass is part of the local serving tradition, but its decorative lines are not a universal measuring scale. Murcia's tourism recipe describes portions using the glass, including condensed milk to roughly two fingers or its faceted section, brandy to taste and drops of Licor 43. Those instructions belong to that serving context; they do not establish fixed gram or millilitre amounts for every glass.
The liqueur producer publishes a more generous Asiático 43 using 20 ml Licor 43, 20 ml Spanish brandy, 60 ml condensed milk and one hot espresso, followed by evaporated milk and garnishes. That differs substantially from this small recipe, especially in the dairy quantity.
This table scrolls horizontally on smaller screens.
| Ingredient | This home recipe | Licor 43's Asiático 43 |
|---|---|---|
| Condensed milk | 20 g, weighed | 60 ml, measured by volume |
| Brandy | 15 ml | 20 ml Spanish brandy |
| Licor 43 Original | 10 ml | 20 ml |
| 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 of condensed milk is not 60 g. 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.
Adjusting Sweetness and Serving It Well
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. These are preparation choices for this home version, not rules claiming to cover every Cartagena café.
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.
Calories, Sugar, Caffeine and Alcohol
This small version calculates to about 135 kcal and 75 mg reference caffeine. The condensed milk alone supplies 11 g sugar. Complete total sugar is not established from the reviewed ingredient records, so 11 g should not be read as the finished drink's total.
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. This is an identified retailer listing, not a manufacturer-published sugar figure. It does not provide the sugar value needed for a complete serving total.
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 about 135 kcal and 75 mg caffeine. These are label-based calculations, not measurements of a tested cup.
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. A small glass or hot coffee should not be taken to mean the alcohol has disappeared.
Common Questions
Where is café asiático from?
Do I need the traditional Asiático glass?
Does café asiático contain alcohol?
Should I stir café asiático?
Is condensed milk the same as evaporated milk?
Editor's Take
Sources and Further Reading
9 references
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