Café de Olla

Café de olla (“pot coffee”) is Mexico’s traditional spiced coffee: ground coffee steeped with piloncillo, an unrefined cane sugar, and cinnamon, ideally in an earthen clay pot (olla de barro) that’s said to give it a special flavour. Wikipedia notes it’s drunk especially in cold climates and rural areas, and families add their own touches, from cloves to orange peel. It’s sweet, warming and quick to make for a crowd. Here’s how, with quantities from three published recipes.

The short version

• Simmer water with piloncillo and cinnamon until the sugar dissolves.
• Take it off the boil and stir in ground coffee.
• Steep, covered, for about 8 minutes, then strain or let the grounds settle.
• One recipe: 1.5 litres of water, 90 g of piloncillo, 1 cinnamon stick and about 45 g of coffee for six cups.
• Serve in small clay cups (jarritos).

What goes into café de olla?

According to the Diccionario enciclopédico de la gastronomía mexicana, as quoted by El Universal, café de olla is made from ground coffee, water, cinnamon and piloncillo. Common extras include:

• Cloves (clavos de olor)
• Orange or lemon peel
• Anise, including star anise
• Mexican chocolate (chocolate de metate), in some recipes

Piloncillo is unrefined whole cane sugar, sold in hard cones and also known as panela or panelón. It gives the coffee a deep, molasses-like sweetness.

How much coffee, piloncillo and water?

Recipes differ a lot, especially in sweetness:

Recipe	Water	Piloncillo	Coffee	Spices
El Diario NY	1.5 litres (6 cups)	90 g	About 45 g	1 cinnamon stick
El Universal	6 cups	200 g	6 tablespoons	2 cinnamon sticks, 2 cloves
El libro clásico de la Navidad en México (1998)	6 cups	100 g	100 g	Cinnamon, 2 cloves, 50 g Mexican chocolate
La Opinión	2 litres	1 medium piece	1 cup, freshly ground	2 cinnamon sticks, star anise, orange peel

The El Diario NY recipe works out at roughly 1:33 coffee to water, much weaker than most brewing ratios, because the piloncillo and spices carry a lot of the flavour. If you like it stronger, use more coffee; if you like it less sweet, start at the lower piloncillo amounts.

How do you make café de olla, step by step?

This follows El Diario NY’s quantities and El Universal’s method:

1. Heat the water in the pot with 90 g of piloncillo and a cinnamon stick (and cloves, if you like), stirring with a wooden spoon until the piloncillo dissolves.
2. Boil for a few minutes to concentrate the flavour; El Universal boils it for 5 minutes.
3. Turn the heat off, or right down so it doesn’t boil again, and stir in about 45 g of ground coffee.
4. Cover and steep for at least 8 minutes, so the coffee “settles”, as El Diario NY puts it.
5. Strain it, or ladle it carefully off the grounds, into jarritos or mugs.

The recipes don’t specify a grind. Because the coffee steeps loose in the pot, I’d use a medium-coarse grind, like a French press, so it settles and strains easily.

Do you need a clay pot?

A clay pot is traditional, and Wikipedia calls it essential for the flavour. Sopitas notes that while a clay pot was once a must, an enamelled steel pot (olla de peltre) is now widely accepted. Some regions do it differently again: La Opinión says that in places such as Veracruz, the ingredients are tied in muslin and dipped in boiling water.

If you use glazed clay, choose pottery sold as lead-free from a trusted seller. The US FDA has warned that some traditional pottery from Mexico, even when labelled “lead free”, has contained extractable lead that can leach into food and drink.

Where does café de olla come from?

Café de olla is firmly Mexican, and drunk especially in rural and colder areas. A popular story says it began during the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920), when the Adelitas, or soldaderas, women who travelled with the armies, brewed coffee with spices and piloncillo to warm and energise the troops. El Universal cites the publication Claridades Agropecuarias for this account, and adds that a splash of tequila (piquete) was sometimes added. It’s a lovely story, but it isn’t documented history, so treat it as legend.

General guidance only. Take care with boiling water and hot clay, and only use cookware that’s safe for food.

Café de olla vs other methods

• Cowboy coffee: coffee boiled in a pot over a fire, without the spices.
• Turkish coffee: powder-fine coffee boiled with sugar in a cezve.
• Arabic coffee: light-roast coffee boiled with cardamom.
• Kokkaffe: Swedish boiled coffee, settled in the pot.

Explore every boiled method in the boiled chapter.