Campfire Café de Olla: Mexican Cinnamon Piloncillo Coffee
Simmer 5 cups of water with chopped piloncillo and 2 cinnamon sticks in a pot over a medium-low fire or stove flame for about 8 minutes, until the sugar melts. Stir in coarse ground coffee, pull the pot off the heat, cover it and steep 5 minutes. Pour through a fine strainer into mugs. Total time is about 20 minutes.
Café de olla is Mexican pot coffee, traditionally brewed with raw cane sugar and cinnamon. Piloncillo is unrefined cane sugar pressed into a cone. It tastes of molasses and caramel, and it gives the coffee a deep, round sweetness that white sugar can't.
There are three ingredients, plus water, and one pot. The smell of cinnamon and caramel drifting off the fire is half the reason to make it. It's a good slow-morning drink, or a warm-up after dark.
Campfire Café de Olla: Mexican Cinnamon Piloncillo Coffee
- Prep
- 5 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Heat
- Medium-low flame or small bed of coals
- Pack weight
- 1 lb
- Campfire
- Camp stove
- Backpacking
- No cooler needed
- One burner
- Low water
- One-pan cleanup
- Shelf-stable
Ingredients
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