# Colombian Tinto & Olleta Source: https://dailyextraction.com/methods/colombian-olleta/ Last updated: 2026-10-19 > Tinto is Colombia's everyday small black coffee, usually served sweet. In the traditional way, water is boiled in an olleta, an aluminium pot for hot drinks, often with panela, raw cane sugar, dissolved in it. Coffee grounds are added and boiled, then the pot comes off the heat. When the grounds sink, the coffee is poured off carefully, or strained. ## At a glance - Grind: Medium-fine (table salt) - Water temperature: Boiled, then rested off the heat - Brew time: about 3:30 - Category: Boiled & Traditional (Boiled) - Difficulty: Beginner - Origin: Colombia - Also known as: tinto, olleta coffee, café tinto, tinto con panela ## Steps 1. **Dissolve the panela**: Bring the water to the boil in the olleta and, if you like, dissolve panela in it to make agua de panela. 2. **Add the coffee**: Stir in the ground coffee. 3. **Boil, then rest**: Let it boil, for about a minute in one recipe, then take it off the heat and leave it for 3 to 4 minutes. 4. **Let it settle**: Leave it until the grounds sink to the bottom. 5. **Pour or strain**: Pour the coffee off carefully, leaving the grounds behind, or strain it through a cloth or fine sieve. Serve it hot in small cups. **Tinto** is Colombia's everyday coffee: a **small black coffee**, usually sweet, drunk all day, at home, in cafés and from the thermos flasks of street vendors, often in small 4 oz cups. The traditional way to make it is in an **olleta**, an aluminium pot used especially for hot drinks: water is brought to the boil, often with **panela**, raw cane sugar, dissolved in it, the coffee is boiled for a while, and the grounds are left to **sink** before it's poured off. Here's how it's done. ## The short version - **An olleta**, an aluminium pot for hot drinks. - **Water brought to the boil**, often with **panela** dissolved in it. - **Coffee boiled**, then rested off the heat a few minutes. - **Grounds left to sink**, then poured off, or strained. - **Served small and black**, often sweet. ## How do you make tinto in an olleta, step by step? 1. **Bring the water to the boil** in the olleta, dissolving **panela** in it if you like. 2. **Stir in the ground coffee.** 3. **Let it boil**, for about a minute in one recipe, then take it off the heat and leave it for **3 to 4 minutes**. 4. **Leave it** until the grounds sink. 5. **Pour it off carefully**, or **strain** it through a cloth or sieve, into small cups. Brew mode on this page times the steep for you. ## How much coffee should I use? Recipes vary a lot. At the Immigrant's Table uses **2 tablespoons of coffee to 2 cups of water**, boiled for 45–60 seconds and then left for 3 to 4 minutes. Publix's batch recipe uses **1 cup of medium-fine coffee and 8 oz of panela to 12 cups of water**, steeped off the heat for 3 to 4 minutes and strained. If you use panela, add it to taste: it's very sweet. Flavors of Bogotá adds that spices such as **cinnamon or ginger** sometimes go in too. ![Chart of coffee grind sizes from extra fine to extra coarse, with medium-fine highlighted for Colombian tinto](https://dailyextraction.com/diagrams/grind-size.svg#medium-fine "Publix's tinto recipe uses a medium-fine grind.") ## What is panela? **Panela** is unrefined whole **cane sugar**, sold in hard blocks or cones. Dissolved in hot water, it makes **agua de panela**, a drink in its own right, and brewing coffee in it makes a sweet, rounded tinto with a hint of molasses. ## Pour off or strain? Both are traditional. The simplest way is to let the grounds **settle** and **pour carefully**, leaving them behind. Many recipes **strain** the coffee instead, through a **cloth filter**, like a [colador](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/colador/), or a fine-mesh sieve. In cafés and public places, Flavors of Bogotá notes, a cloth filter is usually part of making it. ## Tinto vs other pot coffee | | Colombian tinto | [Café de olla](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/cafe-de-olla/) | [Cowboy coffee](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/cowboy-coffee/) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Country | Colombia | Mexico | American West | | Pot | Olleta | Clay pot | Any pot | | Sweetener | Often panela | Piloncillo, with cinnamon | Usually none | | Serving | Small, black | In a clay mug | In a mug | *General guidance only. Take care with boiling water and the hot olleta, and let the grounds settle before pouring.* ## Tinto vs other methods - **[Colador](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/colador/):** the cloth coffee sock used across Latin America. - **[Chorreador](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/chorreador/):** Costa Rica's cloth filter on a stand. - **[Coador de pano](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/coador-de-pano/):** Brazil's cloth filter for sweet cafezinho. - **[Cowboy coffee](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/cowboy-coffee/):** boiled coffee poured off the grounds. Explore every boiled method in the [boiled chapter](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/boiled/). ## Words used in this guide - [Steeping](https://dailyextraction.com/glossary/steeping/): Steeping is leaving ground coffee to sit in water so its flavour dissolves out, as in a French press or cold brew. ## FAQs ### What is tinto? Colombia's everyday small black coffee, served in small cups at home, in cafés and by street vendors from thermos flasks. ### What is an olleta? An aluminium pot used in Colombia especially for making hot drinks, including tinto. ### What is panela? Unrefined whole cane sugar, sold in hard blocks. Dissolved in water it makes agua de panela, and coffee is often brewed in it for a sweet tinto. ### Do you strain tinto? Either way. Traditionally the grounds are left to sink and the coffee poured off carefully, but many recipes strain it through a cloth filter or a fine-mesh sieve. ### Is tinto strong? Usually not. Flavors of Bogotá says tintos are generally not strong and are usually served quite sweet, with sugar or panela. Recipes vary across Colombia. ## Sources - [How Colombians brew coffee](https://flavorsofbogota.com/colombians-brew-coffee/) - [Colombian café tinto](https://immigrantstable.com/colombian-cafe-tinto/) - [Colombian-style tinto](https://www.publix.com/recipe/colombian-style-tinto) - [Panela](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panela) - [What is tinto coffee?](https://batchcoffee.co.uk/stories/tinto)