Colombia’s Refajo, a Beer Cocktail, Is Simplicity at Its Finest
On an afternoon so hot that even the breeze had stopped in its tracks, I was already questioning Medellín’s moniker as Colombia’s City of Eternal Spring, just two weeks after relocating there from New York. I squeezed into the singular patch of shade beneath a eucalyptus tree with a friend, languishing on the grass at his farmhouse in the mountains outside of the city. He reached for my hand: “¿Refajémonos?” I grasped at recesses of my decade-plus of Spanish studies and found nothing. Was this some sort of inappropriate propositioning I’d as of yet been spared from? Mercifully, no. I’d just bumped into one of Colombia’s most beloved beverages for the very first time: Refajo.
A beginner bartender’s dream, the Refajo is so simple to assemble that it almost feels too basic to be called a cocktail at all. An ice-cold mixture of light beer and soda, the Refajo is a summertime staple that is far from unique to Colombia. But over the past few decades, the shandy has become so ubiquitous in the drinking culture across the South American country that it has shifted from an object to a verb, à la Google.
“Refajo has been popular in Colombia for at least the past 30 or 40 years,” says Luis R. Vidal, an anthropologist at the Colegio Mayor de Antioquia in Medellín who studies the intersection of food, drinks and culture. It is a clever hangover cure, an ingenious way to extend the beer supply, and a cooling accompaniment for a hot day, all at once. “But more than anything, Refajo is a social drink at its core, one that we associate with large gatherings, celebrations, and spending time together,” says Vidal.
The classic recipe is nothing more than equal parts light beer and Colombiana, an almost cloyingly sweet soda that smacks of citrus and bubblegum and is frequently compared to cream soda, for the North American palate, or Inca Kola, for those who know their way around the South American beverage scene. However, the Refajo isn’t without its regional variations; on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, for example, it is frequently made with a local favorite, Kola Román.
The simplicity of the Refajo gives it legs, and with them the at-home bartender runs. Riffs can involve adding a splash of orange juice, slices of fruit for garnish, a dash of aguardiente for a true kick, or adjusting the beer-to-soda ratio to balance for sweetness.
Despite its homemade origins, the Refajo isn’t just relegated to backyard barbecues. In many Colombian restaurants, the Refajo is sold by the pitcher, accompanying dishes designed to stick to your ribs: cazuelas bubbling with beans, savory stews, and fried strips of pork belly so long they dangle dangerously off their plates. It has also graduated into a can. Sold as Cola y Pola, using pola, a slang word for beer, the Refajo was a first foray into the small but steadily growing RTD cocktail universe in Colombia. It’s wildly popular, so much so that it is harder to find a convenience store that doesn’t carry the drink.
Amidst a blossoming bar scene in Colombia and a growing focus on more bartending technique, the Refajo’s simplicity sets it apart. “There has been a really exciting push from Colombian bartenders towards returning to our traditional spirits, like viche from centuries of Afro-Colombian tradition along the Pacific Coast,” says Maycoll Tobón, bar director at Bar Carmen in Medellín. “But I think there’s more that can be done with these classic drinks like Refajo too, which are also an important part of our drinking culture that is worth preserving.”
Tobón created several takes on the classic Refajo using exclusively Colombian ingredients to accompany the tasting menu at Carmen, which earned a spot on the World’s 50 Best Bars list for the first time last year. No saccharine sodas here; instead, think local and artisanal beers paired with lesser-known tropical passiflora fruits like passion fruit, gulupa and granadilla.
Elevating the Refajo to an art form won’t be a fit for every at-home bartender. Still, as cocktail culture in Colombia moves at a mile a minute, Tobon sees the value in keeping even the most simple classics on the menu. “There is so much value in the way that the Refajo gathers people,” he says. “It is a part of Colombian culture that unifies people across all social strata, and that is something worth holding on to.”