Keeping warm on the coast with Cremat

Combine rum, coffee beans, lemon zest, cinnamon, and sugar in a clay pot, put the mixture on the stove to warm it up and then set it all on fire. In 10-15 minutes, when the contents of the pot have reduced to about two thirds, take the pot off the stove and cover. The drink is ready to consume: it is hot, aromatic and less strong than its main alcoholic component.

In the times when the Costa Brava was a fishing region, not a tourist one, the cocktail prepared with the recipe above was a surefire way for fishermen to stay warm in the early hours of the morning. Lying on the beach in the sun, you'd be hard-pressed to imagine being cold here, however, the Costa Brava gets really chilly in winter and spring, not without the help of the northern wind Tramuntana.

Modern fishermen stay warm in many different ways, so using cremat ("burnt rum") for these purposes has long become obsolete. Cremat today is an important cultural component of many local holidays and celebrations, often accompanied by singing havanera, a popular song with Cuban origins that is now forgotten in Cuba, but is well remembered in Spain.