Caffè corretto

When I was in Italy a few years ago, I discovered a quite wonderful drink: caffè corretto. It literally means a corrected coffee, and not only do I like how the words rolls of my tongue, I also like the taste. Caffè corretto is served in every cafe or bar in Italy, and easily prepared at home. I brew a pipping hot, strong espresso, add a quick pour of hard liquor (like grappa, rum or brandy) and a teaspoon of sugar. Downed quickly, it is the best pick-me-up on a lazy or rainy afternoon-it puts me right somehow and brings a smile to my face. And it takes less than a minute!

So when I returned from a recent trip to Nicaragua and to Paso Pacifico, I brought home darkly roasted, fragrant Nicaraguan coffee beans and a bottle of rich, sweet Flor de Caña rum. It occurred to me just then, that these are the perfect components for a caffè corretto, Nica style.

While savoring my little pick-me-up the other day, I remembered some amusing moments that I experienced in Nicaragua:

• Crossing the border from Costa Rica to Nicaragua on foot with my tiny rolling suitcase 
• Listening to teensy frogs in the middle of nowhere that sound like car horns and computer games
• Touching a fruit bat's pregnant belly
• Waking up to booming church bells and obnoxiously noisy parrots at 6 am in the colonial city of Granada
• Peering at pigs busily foraging on a playground in El Ostinal
• Looking into the most expressive face of spider monkey Roberto
• Observing hundreds of Halloween Crabs hastily crossing the street just in front of our car
• Watching the cutest Nicaraguan junior rangers reciting a poem to me in Spanish even though I don't speak a word of it