From being sipped from a plastic cup with a straw, to being served in a glass with ice – accompanied by pineapple or golden cranberry extract – grappa or sugar cane liquor is now reaching the bars of prestigious venues. An indispensable companion for parties and long nights in Colombia, it is the latest addition to the family of Latin American spirits that have undergone a process of sophistication. They have become premium products, while remaining popular drinks: tequila, mezcal, cachaça and pisco. Now it’s the brandy’s turn.
Better known in Colombia as Coldit is the unofficial national liquor and the first alcoholic experience for many Colombians. Locals don’t argue about whether or not to drink aguardiente, but rather which type. Until early 2016, the industry was dominated by regional liquor companies, which held a monopoly on liquor production in Colombia. Traditionally, each of the 32 departments (states) has its own: Antioqueño, Néctar, Llanero, Líder, Pijao, Blanco del Valle, Platino,cinqueiano…
Historically, brandy was an industrial product, made with little attention to detail. This is stated by Natalia Carreño, founder of the Aguardentería Demente restaurant-bar in Bogotá, which has a collection of 25 types of aguardiente. “The industrial ones are all very similar; they all have the same tasting notes,” he explains.
The passage of new legislation in 2016, and then again in 2020, allowed private producers to open production in Colombia. And then “a movement began, with different techniques and botanicals, each with its own secret,” adds Carreño. As the laws established criteria to define what exactly constitutes aguardiente – a sugar cane distillate with an alcohol content of between 16% and 36%, along with the presence of anise or fennel in any of its varieties, in the seeds or in the macerated oils – the popular Cold began to take on a new and more sophisticated face.
More careful production, wider scope
Mauricio Gutiérrez, the founder of Mil Demonios, Colombia’s first premium aguardiente, explains: “Today you go anywhere in the world and they serve you tequila. That’s what we want to see with aguardiente: to give this Colombian spirit the credentials to be world-class. As Colombians, we should be as proud of aguardiente as Mexico is of tequila and Peru or Chile of pisco.”
Gutiérrez produces and exports an aguardiente that does not contain anise, but fennel, ginger, lemon and coriander. It also uses extra-neutral alcohol, which has been distilled several times to remove higher alcohols. “Those are the ones that cause discomfort… the ones that give you a hangover, the ones that make the effects of alcohol come on faster and make the experience of drinking something you’d rather forget,” he chuckles.
Science supports it. Nicolás Ríos, professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and spirits expert at the University of Los Andes, in Bogotá, explains that, with each distillation, the alcohol “comes out purer,” reducing the amount of unwanted compounds that produce unpleasant odors and flavors. Additionally, activated carbon filtration, such as that used by Mil Demonios, eliminates remnants of strong or unpleasant compounds, known as “fusel.” Ríos explains that this softens the flavor, without changing the alcohol content. “When it comes out of the distillation column, each molecule is like a square; when you filter it, the corners become smoother, making it easier to drink,” he describes.
Julio Molano, founder of Desquite, another brand of aguardiente produced in the city of San Francisco, says there are five criteria the alcoholic beverage must meet to be considered “premium.” First of all, the quality of the sugar cane, which Molano grows independently in the Gualivá region, located in the northwestern part of the Cundinamarca department. Then there is the distillation process, which is carried out using a continuous copper still. This allows the process to occur without interruption, in order to achieve an alcohol content of 96%. The resulting spirit is mixed with water (the third element, also sourced from the region) and high-quality anise essential oil, the fourth requirement. The product is filtered three times and then bottled. Packaging – which, Molano claims, must be distinctive – is the final requirement.
Added to all this, obviously, is the story that each aguardiente brand wants to tell. They all appeal to the affection Colombians have for this drink, celebrating it as a fundamental element of national culture and identity… but each presents something new. For example, Desquite uses virgin sugar cane syrup – the molasses used to make panela, another national symbol – to create one of its liqueurs. Mil Demonios, for its part, packages its product in a bottle that tries to resemble the gate of a colonial house in Cartagena.
A new way of consuming
With the arrival of these new brands of aguardiente, the way of consuming it has also changed. It’s no longer just an attempt to “knock you out”, as Johan Yepes, head bartender at Aguardientería Demente, says. Rather, it can now be explored through cocktails. Using Desquite, Mil Demonios, Júbilo or Cumbé – aged in oak barrels from the city of Manizales – Yepes concocts cocktails that have transformed the way people approach and understand the consumption of aguardiente.
“People drink it slowly – one or two (glasses) – without needing to get drunk. Some try it and say, ‘Oh, how delicious, I didn’t even like aguardiente before,'” he says. Among its specialties are preparations that combine brandy with hibiscus flowers and red chillies left to macerate for seven days; or with pineapple extract and a touch of mezcal. He also combines corn extracts with aguardiente and martini, or aguardiente mixed with kiwi, coriander and lime. Mix the spirit with passion fruit, make aguardiente margarita or simply serve it over ice with lime.
Yepes explains it Cold It is a versatile and relatively unexplored liqueur. “The notes of vanilla and wood that the barrel gives to Cumbé, or the botanicals of fennel, ginger and coriander in Mil Demonios, combine very well,” he assures EL PAÍS, enthusiastic about the world of possibilities that aguardiente offers. “We have to be bolder, explore more… (we have to) produce spirits with higher alcohol content and different flavors. That’s when you start to ask yourself: ‘how does this liquor taste with this fruit or with this other (ingredient)?'”
“Colombia is the country of aguardiente. And even if it becomes more sophisticated – (if) the recipe changes and the ingredients vary –Cold will continue to be part of the national identity. There is no risk that it will cease to exist”, underlines restaurateur Natalia Carreño. “It’s not that it doesn’t exist elsewhere, but it is Our drink,” he adds. “People want to try new things, but there are also those who come to the restaurant looking for the aguardiente of their region: a Llanero, a Doble Anís. And there’s something for everyone.”
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