Borrachitos

Borrachitos belong to Mexico's tradition of dulces típicos — the regional candies sold from sweet shops and markets — and are especially associated with Toluca, the State of México capital long known for its candy trade. They sit in the broad family of cooked sugar-and-starch jellies, the same kind of fruit-paste and gumdrop confection made across central Mexico, distinguished by the shot of liqueur worked into them that earns the name "little drunks." As a folk confection they have no single inventor or fixed origin date. The traditional spirit is often rompope, Mexico's convent-born eggnog-like liqueur, though brandy, sherry, fruit liqueurs and others are all used; the flavor and the booze together are the whole point of the candy.

A borrachito gives a soft, tender chew — it yields easily, somewhere between a firm jelly and a gumdrop, never hard, with a smooth, slightly springy bite that gives way and dissolves. The outside is coated in fine sugar that dusts the lips first; inside it is sweet and fruity, and then the liqueur comes through, a warm, faintly heady note of rompope or brandy that lingers after the sweetness. Each color reads as its own fruit. It is small, soft and rich, with just enough alcohol warmth to mark it as a grown-up candy rather than a children's gummy.

The borrachito is a cooked sugar jelly set with starch or gelatin, and the texture turns on the gelling. Sugar is cooked with water and fruit flavor into a syrup, and a gelling agent — traditionally cornstarch, sometimes gelatin — is cooked or dissolved into it; as the mixture cools, the starch granules swell and set, or the gelatin's protein forms a network, trapping the syrup into a firm but tender, sliceable jelly, the same logic behind Turkish delight (starch-set) or a soft gumdrop (gelatin- or pectin-set). The liqueur is stirred in off or near the end of the heat so its flavor — and some of its warmth — survives rather than boiling entirely away; adding it late keeps the boozy note. The set jelly is left to firm up, often overnight, then cut into cubes. A final roll in granulated or powdered sugar coats the sticky surface so the pieces don't cling together and gives the candy its frosted look and first hit of sweetness. Acid in the fruit and careful sugar concentration keep the jelly tender rather than rubbery or grainy.