French Quarter Café Brûlot – The Big Easy Origin
Shorter Version of the Famous New Orleans After-Dinner Coffee
Sep 1, 2008
This is the easy version of the drink might just have its roots in the Spanish Inquisition! This devil's brew has been attributed to Dominique Youx, said to be elder brother and/or top lieutenant to the pirate, Jean Lafitte (Jean preferred the term privateer).
More likely is the claim that Jules Alciatore, the son of the founder of Antoine's restaurant in New Orleans, created Café Brûlot Diabolique in the 1890s.
For the traditional recipe as served in Antoine's in New Orleans, check out French Quarter Flaming Café Brûlot
Café Brûlot One at a Time
You will need: demitasse cups or better yet, brûlot cups, which are available on Amazon.
- strong, hot coffee or espresso, freshly made
for each cup:
- 1 small cube of sugar
- 1 Tbsp brandy
- 1” strip of lemon peel
- 1-2 whole cloves
- 2” stick of cinnamon
- Half fill a warmed demitasse cup with strong coffee.
- In a coffee spoon held over the demitasse, saturate the sugar cube with brandy and ignite it.
- When the sugar melts, lower the spoon into the demitasse.
- Stir in lemon peel and cloves with the cinnamon stick.
The Spanish Inquisition? The history of Jean Lafitte and his brother Dominique Youx is fascinating. Their great grandmother was a Sephardic Jew who fled the Spanish Inquisition over the Pyrenees to southern France. By some accounts, that's where Jean was born. Dominique went on to serve as a artillery gunner for Napoleon. Jean and his mother emigrated to Santo Domingo (in present-day Haiti), and eventually to New Orleans. When Napoleon was exiled, Dominique joined his younger brothers' privateering enterprise in New Orleans.
Their illegal smuggling made the brothers heroes to the embargo-deprived city if not the government. When the Louisiana governor put a price on Jean LaFitte's head, LaFitte countered by putting triple the price on the governor's head! They moved their operation to Barataria a series islands and bayous south of the city at the mouth of the Mississippi River.
LaFitte's allegiance has been questioned, but when the British tried to bribe him into helping them attack New Orleans during the war of 1812, he instead warned the governor. The brothers and their company fought bravely and decisively with General Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans, winning the battle that not only ended the war but also won their pardon by the president.
Dominique, after an aborted plot to rescue Napoleon from St. Helena, retired in New Orleans, where he may (or may not) have developed Cafe brûlot. (One painting protrays Jean and Pierre LaFitte in "Dominique You's Bar.") Jean LaFitte, wasn't ready for respectibility, and instead took over Galveston Island as his new base of privateering operations, with a nod from the Republic of Texas.
Most readers may be more familiar with Dominique Youx from the phrase he coined, “Les BonBons Acceuillis, Produisent Leur Effet, Mais La Liqueur Travaille Plus Vita Cet Effet,” which seems wordy compared to its translation: "Candy is Dandy but Liquor is Quicker."
And no, you're right, neither Hollywood movie version of Jean Lafitte's exploits revealed his Jewish heritage.
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