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Spanish film director Álex de la Iglesia drank them in pairs, even in threes. When he arrived in Cartagena to shoot the film La chispa de la vida (Salma Hayek, José Mota…) he was captivated by two things: the Roman Theater, the setting for his story, and a potion called Asian coffee. He said that the only thing he did not like about the drink is that the cup where it is served is small, “it should be bigger, so I ask for two or three and they put them in a single larger glass. It is a great invention. It changed my life.
The truth is that the Asian coffee, born in the city of Cartagena in the last century, is already an icon of gastronomy. Elaborated with care, it harmoniously combines coffee, condensed milk and cognac, although in later years – to the criticism of the purists – a dash of Licor 43 (made in Cartagena), a few coffee beans, a small lemon peel and a little cinnamon were added. We would say that this is the Asian Premium coffee.
The result of this curious mixture is an energetic drink that has crossed borders around the world and that has historically been shared by rich and poor, princes and commoners… A coffee of the people that has become popular among men and women, in the darkest dens and also in the most luminous Michelin-starred restaurants? but who invented the Asian?
The two theories of its origin
Much has been written and said on this subject and there are two theories that have remained alive over the years. The first one places its origin in the bars of the port area of Cartagena at the beginning of the 20th century, when ships from the East Indies docked at its docks and their sailors disembarked and asked for a coffee with condensed milk and brandy to warm up.
The countrymen who saw those sailors drinking again and again that curious mixture began to ask for it as well. The conversation with the waiter was very simple: “give me the same thing that the Asian drinks”. And so, little by little, this coffee became popular in the city and ended up being called ‘an Asian’.
The second theory of the origin of this coffee we have to locate it in El Albujón, a county of Cartagena, historical crossroads with the national road to Madrid and on the opposite side of the sea, in the bowels of the countryside. There, in 1947, according to his family, it was Pedro Conesa ‘Pedrín’ who came up with the formula.
It all came about when this ‘Pedrín’, who ran a bar, broke the filter castle of the coffee pot, which caused some dark coffee grounds to remain when it was time to serve it, not to mention the bitter taste it had. It was undrinkable.
That broken filter could ruin the already battered economy of a family trying to get by in that interwar period. Without coffee sales, things were not looking good. The problems to solve the breakage were twofold: on the one hand, the economic one. And secondly, since it was an Italian part, the spare part would take a long time to arrive.
Faced with this distressing situation, Pedrín came up with the idea of getting creative and decided to add a dash of brandy and condensed milk to the bitter coffee, and to steam it all to hide the coffee grounds. That worked and the clients, curious about the way of preparing this new mixture, began to ask for it.
Not only the taste and history are curious in Asian coffee, but also the specific cup in which it is served
Then came the name, according to the family, ‘the Asian’ was put to differentiate it from another drink that was served in those times in another neighboring county, Los Dolores, which served a concoction called ‘the Russian’.
The combination worked and coffee soon became a highly demanded beverage, which brought economic relief to the family.
The Pedrín bar was then, today less so due to the proliferation of highways, an obligatory stop for those who traveled between Cartagena and Murcia for reasons of work or ‘administrative paperwork’ or also on days of soccer matches or bullfights.
The expectation generated by that Asian café reached all corners. Since then, musicians, actors and all kinds of politicians and admirals have passed through the bar, even the now King Emeritus and then Prince Juan Carlos de Borbón (when he was stationed at the Military Academy in San Javier) had the customary Asian drink.
These are the two stories that popular tradition has made its own to tell the life of a café that unites families, friends, people of culture and politics at any time of the day or night.
But if its creation is curious, so is the cup where this Asian coffee is served. The authentic cup, initially called strong bell cup, appeared for the first time in 1908, by the Unión Vidriera de España factory, located in Santa Lucía (Cartagena).
Originally used for vermouth, it was soon used almost exclusively for Asian coffee.
