Mexico
Café de olla is Mexican coffee simmered with piloncillo cane sugar and a cinnamon stick in a clay pot. The ingredients, the method and the coffee to use.
Café de olla — coffee of the pot — is simmered with piloncillo and cinnamon in an earthenware olla.
Piloncillo is unrefined whole cane sugar, sold in hard cones. It tastes of molasses and caramel rather than simply sweet, and it is a genuine flavor ingredient rather than a sweetener.
Canela — true Ceylon cinnamon rather than cassia — added as a stick.
Sometimes orange peel, star anise or cloves.
Traditional and not merely decorative: unglazed earthenware contributes a distinct mineral, earthy note that Mexicans describe as essential. A metal pan makes the drink; a clay olla makes café de olla.
Bring 1 liter (about a quart) of water to a simmer with 60 g (2.1 oz) of piloncillo and a cinnamon stick until the sugar dissolves.
Add 60 g (2.1 oz) of coarsely ground coffee, take it off the heat, cover, and steep for five minutes.
Strain and serve in clay mugs.
It is often said to date to the Mexican Revolution, when it was made for soldiers — sweet, strong and warming, from whatever coffee was available.
A medium-roast Chiapas or Oaxaca, coarsely ground. There is no point using an expensive delicate coffee under this much sugar and spice.
Piloncillo is sold in Mexican groceries in the US, often as cones labeled panela. Dark brown sugar with a spoonful of molasses is the closest substitute. A heavy saucepan works if you have no olla; the drink loses its earthy note but keeps its character. Ceylon cinnamon is softer and more floral than the cassia sold as cinnamon in most US supermarkets, so use less cassia if that is what you have.
Café de olla is served hot, black and already sweet, in small clay jarritos. It is a morning and evening coffee, and a fixture at holidays.
The equipment this actually requires — not a shopping list, the shortest route to doing it properly.
1.25 L · 92–96 °C (198 to 205 °F) brew · copper element · SCA certified
Hits proper brew temperature in about four minutes and holds it, which is the entire job and which almost no cheap drip machine does. Hand-built in the Netherlands, repairable indefinitely, and priced accordingly.
Best for: A household that drinks filter coffee by the pot, every day, for years.
39 mm (1.54 in) nitrogen-hardened burr · hand · filter & espresso
The hand grinder others are measured against, and priced accordingly. Grinds better than electric grinders at twice the money, and asks for your arm every single morning.
Best for: One or two exceptional cups a day, travel, and anyone who values the object.
