Spain Cafe de Tenerife

Tenerife's coffee is a small, strong espresso with dark chocolate, nut and smoke, and the island's best-known coffee drink is the barraquito, a layered glass of condensed milk, liqueur, espresso, milk foam, cinnamon and lemon peel.

Origin & Story

On Tenerife coffee is taken small and strong, often cut with milk in a cortado. And one drink belongs to the island above all: the barraquito.

The barraquito is a layered drink built in a small glass: sweetened condensed milk at the bottom, then Licor 43, a Spanish liqueur, then espresso, then frothed milk, finished with cinnamon and a twist of lemon peel. Each layer keeps its own color: cream, gold, brown and white.

Its story is told in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. It is said to have started in the middle of the 20th century in a bar on the Plaza de la Paz run by Manolo Grijalbo, where a regular known as el Barraco ordered a coffee with condensed milk, Licor 43, fresh milk, cinnamon and a slice of lemon. The recipe spread across the island and took the name barraquito, in his honor.

Spain also grows a little coffee of its own, in the Canary Islands. The best-known area is the Agaete Valley, on the neighboring island of Gran Canaria, where plants of the Arabica Typica variety arrived at the beginning of the 19th century, and a few small estates on Tenerife and other islands grow it too.

The espresso here is a single shot, 9 g of coffee into about 18 g, in 25 to 30 seconds. For a barraquito, pour about two tablespoons of condensed milk into a small glass, add a measure of Licor 43 over the back of a spoon, then the espresso, then frothed milk, and finish with cinnamon and lemon peel.

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