Cuban cafecito
A small, very sweet shot of dark-roasted coffee, with sugar whipped into a pale espumita by the first drops of coffee.
Cuba · Moka pot · Hot · Very strong
- Coffee
- 7 g
- Water
- 70 ml
- Ratio
- 1 : 10
- Temperature
- Just off the boil
- Time
- 8 min
- Caffeine
- About 50 mg
Just off the boil, in the base.
Dark roast, medium-fine grind- Espumita 10 ml
- Sweet coffee 50 ml
Ingredients
- 7 gGround coffeemedium-fine, a dark roast
- 70 mlWaterjust off the boil, for the moka pot
- 8 gSugarwhite sugar
Method
Put the sugar in a small jug. Fill the moka base with hot water below the valve and the basket with coffee, level and untamped, and set it on low heat with the lid open.
As soon as the first teaspoon or two of coffee comes through, pour it onto the sugar and put the pot back on the heat.
Beat the sugar and coffee hard with a teaspoon until it turns into a pale, thick paste, about a minute.
Beat1:00When the pot starts to sputter, pour the rest of the coffee slowly into the paste, stirring; the espumita rises to the top.
Pour into small cups.
Tips
- Use only a few drops of coffee for the espumita; with too much liquid the sugar will not whip.
- Scale it to fill the pot: a 3-cup moka pot makes two cafecitos, and served in one cup with small cups to share, it is a colada.
- With an espresso machine, catch the first drops of a double shot on the sugar the same way.
About this drink
Cafecito, or café cubano, is a small, very sweet shot of dark-roasted coffee, made at home in a moka pot and in Cuban cafés on espresso machines. Its mark is the espumita: sugar beaten with the first strong drops of coffee into a pale, thick paste, which rises as a light tan foam when the rest of the coffee is stirred in. It is strong, syrupy, and sweet, and it is often shared from one larger cup, a colada.
