Café de Olla with Piloncillo, Cinnamon & Orange

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

Mexico's traditional pot coffee, simmered rather than brewed: coarse ground coffee steeped with piloncillo, a stick of true canela, star anise and a wide ribbon of orange peel. The result is dark, spiced and lightly sweet with a syrupy body no drip machine can copy. Made in a saucepan on any stove, strained clean, and just as good poured over ice the next day.

Ingredients

• 4 cup water, filtered
• 3 oz piloncillo (about 1 small cone), chopped, or 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2 Mexican cinnamon (canela) sticks, broken in half
• 1 star anise pod
• 2 whole cloves
• 1 wide strip orange peel, 3 inches, no white pith
• 1 pinch fine sea salt
• 1/2 cup coarsely ground dark-roast coffee (about 1 3/4 oz whole beans)

• splash of warm whole milk or evaporated milk
• ice, for the cold version
• extra cinnamon sticks, for stirring

Instructions

1. Grind 1 3/4 oz whole dark-roast beans coarse, like French press grit — fine grounds will slip through the strainer and turn the cup muddy. Set aside.
2. Combine the 4 cups water, chopped piloncillo, cinnamon sticks, star anise, cloves, orange peel and pinch of salt in a 2-quart saucepan (or a traditional olla de barro if you have one). Set over medium heat and bring to a bare simmer, stirring now and then, until the piloncillo has fully dissolved, 6 to 8 minutes.
3. Reduce the heat to low and let the spiced syrup steep at a lazy simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. This is where the canela and orange do their work — do not skip it.
4. Remove the pan from the heat entirely and wait 30 seconds so the water drops below boiling (around 200°F). Stir in the ground coffee, making sure all of it is wet. Cover and let stand off the heat for 5 minutes.
5. Uncover and stir once, gently, to sink the crust of grounds. Cover again and steep 2 minutes more for a total of 7 — longer and it turns bitter.
6. Set a fine-mesh strainer over a warmed pitcher or heatproof measuring cup and line it with a paper coffee filter or a double layer of cheesecloth. Pour the coffee through slowly, letting it drain on its own rather than pressing on the grounds. Discard the grounds and spices.
7. Taste. If you want it sweeter, stir in a teaspoon more grated piloncillo while the coffee is hot. Pour into mugs, add a splash of warm milk if you like, and serve with a cinnamon stick in each.
8. For the iced version: cool the strained coffee to room temperature, then refrigerate at least 2 hours. Pour over a tall glass packed with ice and top with 2 tablespoons cold evaporated milk — it will keep 4 days covered in the fridge.

Chef's tips

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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