I saw the Mixology Monday initiative on The Cocktail Chronicles a while back, thought briefly about writing something, and then promptly forgot about it until today, when a bunch of entries have begun popping up in Bloglines. So here’s my effort.

In fact, I’m willing to bet this entry isn’t like most of the ones that will take part of this event. For one thing, the ones I’ve read are well-researched pieces on some piece or another of classic cocktail history, with emphasis on glamorous and interesting people you may well have heard of. Here, on the other hand, you’re going to read about the anonymous heroes of Spain, rugged men who support the country from it’s foundations every day. These are the men who are in charge of building roads, bridges and buildings, of working in mines, refineries and foundries, and other hard and despised labour.

How does a hero’s day start, you ask? It’s a hard life out in the obra, as it’s known in spanish. At 7:30 AM they’re already at the building site, and can’t wait to get started. Unfortunately, the site doesn’t open until 8, so there’s half an hour to kill. This is just enough time to pop into a café for a carajillo, strong expresso coffee mixed with a shot of orujo (a grape-based distillate similar to italian Grappa,) to keep them warm. Let’s not forget that most of Spain gets pretty chilly in the winter, and sub-zero (Celsius) temperatures are not unknown in the center and north of the country.

Work begins at 8 AM and throughout the morning cheap beer is consumed to keep the spirit up. As morning merges into midday, cheap wine begins to replace the beer and maybe at around 11 AM our star, the Sol y Sombra, is called for.

Lunch brings with it vino con Casera, a 50/50 mix of red wine and an artificially sweetened soda water (Casera is the best-known brand.) After dessert, they have a range of possible drinks to accompany their coffee. These mostly these include infusions of the previously mentioned orujo, and can also include brandy and pacharán. They can have up to three drinks with coffee, all in the interest of socializing, of course.

The afternoon is taken up with looking at women, cat-calling women, shouting obscenities at women, and of course, drinking. Sometimes, they even work. Afternoon drinks consist of traditional spanish cubatas. A cubata is a generic term for a spirit mixed with Coke. Usually, the spirit is the cheapest one to be found in the local supermarket, and invariably rum or whisky.

Finally, at around 6 PM, the day is done and it’s time to head home, safe in the knowledge that the country and, indeed, civilization, is better off.

So where’s the Pastis angle?

Well, there’s a hint of it at lunchtime, since pacharán is actually an infusion of sloe berries in Anís, the spanish traditional anise-flavoured drink. However, the featured drink today is the Sol y Sombra.

The Sol y Sombra is a mix of Anís and brandy, usually the cheapest available in the café we’re at. To enjoy this drink, you really need to like anise, since the proportions make the brandy almost impossible to taste. Also, it’s served at room temperature, so the full aroma is in your face when you take a sip (or gulp). The recipe is as follows:

• 1/2 part Brandy (preferably spanish sherry brandy)
• 1/2 part Anís

Build in a brandy snifter.

I imagine that the idea behind this drink is to use the brandy to lower the sweetness of the Anís, since it is very sweet, and also to make a stronger drink, since the brandy is stronger than the anís. It’s still a fairly intriguing choice of a drink, until you realize it’s purpose is not to be enjoyed but to warm the body and mind.

Playing around with the proportions, I found that reducing the proportion of Anís to a quarter or less of the total volume, makes a complex and interesting drink where the brandy’s smell and taste interacts with the anise flavour. I like this better than the original.

But then, I’m not a manly man working at a construction site…

This entry was posted on Monday, April 24th, 2006 at 11:50 pm and is filed under English. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.