Mexico
Coffee simmered with unrefined cane sugar and cinnamon in a clay pot. Sweet, spiced and traditionally drunk from clay mugs.
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 flavour 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 litre of water to a simmer with 60 g of piloncillo and a cinnamon stick until the sugar dissolves.
Add 60 g of coarsely ground coffee, take it off the heat, cover, and steep for five minutes.
Strain and serve in clay mugs.
It dates 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.
The equipment this actually requires — not a shopping list, the shortest route to doing it properly.
1.25 L · 92–96 °C 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.
≈ $360 / £280 / 300 €
39 mm 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.
≈ $340 / £270 / 290 €
