Cafe de Olla

Mexico's clay-pot coffee, and the only brew here whose recipe starts with sugar and spice. Piloncillo, cinnamon and whole spices go into the water first; the coffee goes in off the heat, steeps, and is poured out through a sieve. Sweet, dark and unmistakably of somewhere.

Overview

Ours 1:20·45 g·900 g·95 °C·Medium-coarse · 800–1000 µm·10 min Make it yours

Brew with us

Cafe de Olla

Grinder

Grind Medium-coarse 800–1000 µm

Ratio 1:

Dose g

Water g

Water temp °C

Total time 10 min

STEP 1 / 7 0:00 / 0:00

Notes

We put the spices in whole and take them out with the sieve — ground spice makes the pot cloudy and never leaves. Sweeten in the pot, not in the cup: piloncillo dissolved into the brew tastes of molasses, stirred in afterwards it just tastes of sugar.

Weigh beans

Weigh out the beans — fresh, not pre-ground.

Grind

Grind medium-coarse — rough sea salt.

Spice the water

Heat the water with the piloncillo and whole spices until the sugar melts.

Add the grounds

Take it off the heat, then stir the grounds in.

Steep

Let it steep five or six minutes.

Strain

Pour it through a sieve into the cups.

Enjoy

Drink it hot, sweet and spiced — no sugar needed.

Behind every step

1Weigh beans
0:05

Weighing instead of scooping is the only way to repeat a brew — beans differ in density and roast, so a scoop of one is not a scoop of another. Fix the dose and every other variable finally means something.
2Grind
0:15

There is no paper and no mesh in this method, only a sieve at the very end, so the grind has to be coarse enough to strain cleanly. Medium-coarse is the target; a fine grind slips straight through a sieve and lands in the cup as grit.
3Spice the water
4:00

A clay olla is the traditional pot and it is not only romance — unglazed clay heats slowly and evenly, which is what keeps a sweetened brew from catching and scorching. A saucepan works; use a heat diffuser if your olla is new to the flame.
4Add the grounds
0:10

Off the heat first, always. Coffee dropped into water still on the flame boils rather than steeps, and boiled coffee is bitter in a way no amount of piloncillo covers up.
5Steep
5:30

Five to six minutes with the lid on and the pot off the heat. The grounds float at first and sink as they saturate; when the surface is clear it is done, and leaving it longer only draws bitterness out of a dark roast.
6Strain
0:20

There is no filter in this method, only a sieve at the end, which is why the grind has to be coarse. Pour steadily and stop while there is still liquid over the bed: the last inch is where the fines are, and chasing it is what makes the cup gritty.
7Enjoy
0:10

Coffee keeps changing as it cools: aromatics fade, acidity sharpens and sweetness comes forward. Drink it soon after brewing, and taste it as it drops in temperature — that's how you learn what to adjust next time.

Fix it by taste

Sweetness and strength move separately here, which is the pleasure of it. Piloncillo is to taste — 60 g in 900 ml is a middle setting, and Mexican recipes go far sweeter. For strength, change the coffee, not the sugar. Too thin? Steep the full six minutes or add 5 g. Bitter? You boiled it, or you steeped past seven.

Bitter and flat

The coffee boiled

Fix · Take the pot off the heat BEFORE the grounds go in — this steeps, it never boils
Gritty in the cup

Grind too fine for a sieve

Fix · Coarsen a step, and stop pouring while there is still liquid over the bed
Cloudy and muddy

Ground spice instead of whole

Fix · Whole spices only — ground spice never strains out
Sweet but not spiced

Spices went in too late

Fix · Give them the full heat-up with the piloncillo; they need minutes, not seconds

What you need

A clay olla if you have one, a saucepan if you do not, and a sieve. Unglazed clay heats slowly and evenly, which keeps a sweetened brew from catching — if your olla is new, season it and use a heat diffuser the first few times.

Beans & roast

Dark roasts, and this is one of the few methods where that is the actual recommendation rather than a shrug: the sweetness and the spice want something with body and chocolate to stand against. A bright light roast disappears under the piloncillo.

Variations to try

Orange peel

A strip in with the spices — traditional, and it lifts the whole pot
Sweeter

Up to 120 g piloncillo in the same water, which is nearer how it is served at home
Pressed

Decant into a French press and plunge instead of straining

Cafe de Olla FAQ

Can I use brown sugar instead of piloncillo?

You can, and it will be sweet, but it will not taste the same. Piloncillo is unrefined whole cane sugar and carries a molasses-and-smoke note that white or brown sugar does not. Dark muscovado is the closest substitute.

Do I need a clay pot?

No — a saucepan works and most home kitchens use one. The clay is not superstition though: it heats slowly and evenly, which matters for a pot with sugar in it. If you do use clay, season it first and go gently on the flame.

Why does mine taste bitter?

Almost always because it boiled with the coffee in it. Bring the spiced water to a boil, take it OFF the heat, and only then stir in the grounds. Six minutes of steeping, then strain — coffee left sitting on the bed keeps going.