chispa 'e tren

What it means

1. 1.

   Home-distilled rotgut spirit, sold illegally by the bottle. Rough, strong and occasionally dangerous, since the raw material is whatever was available.

2. 2.

   Loosely, any very cheap and very strong drink.

Literally: Train spark.

Examples with translations

• No te tomes eso, es chispa 'e tren.

  Don't drink that, it's moonshine.

• Con dos tragos de chispa 'e tren ya nadie sabe cómo se llama.

  Two shots of that stuff and nobody remembers their own name.

Where it comes from

The name is a joke about potency — it goes off like a spark from a locomotive. Cuban home distilling grew during the shortages of the 1990s, and the drink is also called train, bajativo or, drily, la bebida del pueblo.

First attested: 1990s

Other forms

Similar terms:

train