🥃 Licor 43

Licor 43 (in Spanish, Cuarenta y Tres) is a Spanish sweet liqueur with a vanilla-citrus flavour at 31% ABV. It has been made since 1946 by the Zamora family in Cartagena, in the region of Murcia, and is still bottled only there. The name means the number of ingredients: according to the producer, the recipe combines 43 natural ingredients.

According to the company's history, the first liqueur was created by the brothers Diego and Ángel Zamora, their sister Josefina and her husband Emilio Restoy. The brand now belongs to the family-run Zamora Company, which grew up around it. The company links the recipe to the legend of “Liqvor Mirabilis”, a golden drink supposedly prepared in the ancient city of Carthago Nova (present-day Cartagena); this is part of the brand's lore, not a historical document.

The full recipe is secret. The producer speaks of Mediterranean citrus fruits and aromatic plants, while Difford's Guide names five known ingredients: orange, vanilla, lemon, coriander and tea. According to the same publication, the plants are macerated, the mixture rests in steel tanks, undergoes cold treatment and microfiltration, and the liqueur is bottled at 31% ABV.

Besides the classic liqueur, Zamora Company makes Licor 43 Horchata, Chocolate, Crème Brûlée and Caramel Cookie. In Mexico the liqueur became the basis of the carajillo, an espresso with Licor 43 and ice, and in the Canary Islands the barraquito, a layered coffee with condensed milk, is unthinkable without it.

Why this matters to you. The number 43 in the name is the number of ingredients, not the strength: the liqueur is 31% ABV. It is sweet, so in coffee drinks it adds both alcohol and sugar. A barraquito or carajillo with the liqueur is already an alcoholic drink, even though it is served as coffee. The WHO reminds us that no level of alcohol consumption is safe.