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My Cousin Joel's Favorite Hot Drink: Café De Olla

Café de Olla with your breakfast?


Some people have been waiting to taste that perfectly sweet and caffeinated pumpkin spice latte everywhere. I mean why not? It was pumpkin season not long ago! But this time we are here to tell you about another popular and delicious beverage option to try this winter season. 

If you ever travel to Mexico, especially when it gets a little cold,  you will be able to find that  most restaurants offer Café de Olla on their menus.  If you are lucky, they will even offer it with “piquete”(liquor)  to make it even better. The tradition of having Café de Olla with breakfast has expanded into the United States, as well.  Most Mexican restaurants here will have it on the menu all year around. 

Café de Olla has its origins during the Mexican Revolution; this was the drink that women who supported the cause and traveled with the soldiers would give to them to make them feel ready and energized for the day. The original recipe calls for ground coffee, cinnamon, piloncillo (Mexican brown sugar, kind of like molasses), cloves and chocolate, and it was roasted in a pot of clay on a fire pit. Nowadays, Café de Olla is prepared without chocolate, leaving the piloncillo as the only sweet ingredient. 

Recipe

5 cups of water

4 oz of piloncillo

1 stick of Mexican cinnamon 

1 anis star

5 tablespoons of ground fresh Mexican coffee


Use a medium-sized pot to place the water, piloncillo, cinnamon, and anis. Turn the fire up and simmer until you can see the piloncillo has dissolved completely. When the water starts boiling, add the coffee and stir. Let it infuse for 10 min and use a strainer to serve. If you are interested in the “piquete,” you can always use liquor 43 or a tequila liqueur.

So, what do Emiliano Zapata and my cousin Joel have in common? Probably not much except their love for a good cup of Café de Olla on a fall morning, I am sure you will love it, too. Enjoy!


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