The Nicolaska: a cocktail for nighthawks
(originally appeared in culturecloud)

The evening starts late in Madrid. It's common to meet up with your friends at midnight or later, and to stay together until chocolate and churros by the dawn's light. Energy and endurance are critical; run out of steam, and you're likely to find yourself adrift in "la hora tonta" (the foolish hour) — that time around three in the morning when, if you're not already somewhere good, or well on your way there, you might as well head home (without a taxi in sight, naturally).

Arriving fresh out of college back in '89, I found the Spanish nightlife a real challenge. An early riser by nature, I'd be yawning long before the fiesta began. My complete lack of Spanish quickly sidelined me in spite of the friendliness of the locals, and the hours passed slowly in a fog of incomprehension. But that was before I discovered the Nicolaska.

It was in a small bar called Chance, the kind of place younger Madrileños would gather to tie one on before proceeding to live music or dancing. The streets outside were lined with urinating Spaniards, a local custom I initially found distasteful, but soon adopted in the spirit of cultural exchange. Inside, Chance was crowded and noisy, smoky darkness cut only by pools of light on the bar. At regular intervals along its length, I saw small plates ringed with disks of white and brown, accompanied by pony glasses of clear liquor. Specifically:

The Nicolaska

1. On a plate, arrange lemon slices — disks, not wedges — with the rind removed. Spoon sugar onto one half of each slice, and coffee grounds (ideally espresso, ground as fine as possible) on the other half.
2. Fill pony glasses with ice and a large shot of vodka.  
3. Assemble your friends.

So far, so simple — but it's the mechanics of consumption that matter here. One wrong move, and you're sipping straight vodka. So pay attention, and make sure your friends do it right, too.

4. Put one of the lemon slices in your mouth and chew gently so that its juice mixes with the sugar and coffee. Then drink the vodka briskly — neither shooting it nor sipping it, but right in the middle — through the resulting paste, gauging the progression of vodka and paste across your palate and down your throat so that it all finishes at the same time.
5. Repeat as desired.

Long before the invention of Red Bull or the popularization of meth, the Nicolaska delivered energy and inebriation in a single dose, demolishing barriers of language and temperament as it impelled me through high-toned clubs and bloodthirsty dives, pounding discos and lesbian cabarets, all-night drug markets and all-ages chocolaterías, magic clubs and torero hangouts. How things changed after that night ...