Grandmothers always teach us and pass on their knowledge, tastes, and a deep love. Over the years, they share those feelings with us, and it's surely thanks to them and their wonderful custom of accompanying every moment with a delicious cup of coffee that many of us today love and enjoy this delicious beverage so much. Today is the time to talk about a tradition from our grandmothers linked to our passion for coffee: cafΓ© de olla (pot coffee).
I'd think we all grew up watching our grandmothers, mothers, and aunts spend hours and hours in the large kitchens of those old relatives' homes, preparing large pots of coffee for the whole family and bringing all generations together around a cup. For me, at least, that memory connects me with my love for this beverage and is the reason I feel such passion and love for this bean.
The story behind pot coffee
This is the typical way of preparing coffee in Latin America. It is said to have begun in Mexico, with the arrival of coffee to this country in the 18th century, during the viceregal period. It is erroneously said that this type of coffee preparation dates back to pre-Hispanic times and that Moctezuma, the emperor of the Mexica empire (so you can see that we don't only learn about coffee here), was a great coffee drinker. However, records of the arrival of the bean to the country indicate quite the opposite. What the emperor drank, depending on the time, was an infusion of honey, corn, and cocoa, a mixture very similar to the preparation of pot coffee.
This preparation consists of flavor the coffee with panela and cinnamon, Some people, depending on their taste, also add cloves, dark chocolate, Tabasco (as with everything in Mexico), lemon or orange zest. Mexican tradition dictates that coffee should be prepared in a clay pot and served in clay cups, although here in Colombia, it's customary to prepare it in a metal pot or in a hot chocolate pot.
And how do you prepare pot coffee?
It's very easy: heat all the selected ingredients, either in water or preferably in panela water, except for the coffee. We already know that we can add any flavors we want, whether citrus or sweet. After heating, remove from the heat and then add the coffee. If we add the coffee from the very beginning of the boil, it will take on an overly bitter taste. After letting it sit for about 5 minutes, we can serve it and enjoy a delicious traditional coffee.
Among the ingredients added to cafΓ© de olla, one of the most popular is anise, our beloved spirit. This blend of coffee and spirit is known as carajillo and is very popular throughout Latin America.
A trick used when preparing coffee in water, aiming to reach the recommended temperature between 90Β° and 96Β°, is to turn off the heat just before the water begins to boil, meaning it starts to bubble. According to science, water boils at 100Β°.
The tradition
This is a tradition that is preserved in very few homes today, but there are some people who haven't lost it: the coffee-growing matrons and many of Colombia's peasant mothers. In the villages and rural areas, the experience of enjoying coffee from a pot is still lived out. The matrons of the coffee-growing villages always keep the best part of the production, a small portion of course, and with this, they prepare the best coffee for the harvesters who, despite the artisanal preparation method, enjoy these delicious beverages every morning before heading out to collect the beans.
But the secret of the midwives isn't in separating the best beans for them . Do you know where the secret really lies? It's very simple in the pot, a pot that has been brewing coffee every morning for years and quite a few, a pot that, according to them, has never been washed. But when I tell them the secret is in the pot, I'm not referring to the cooking utensil, or not just it. The real secret, according to them, is in the pot, but it's the coffee itself; the grounds, or dregs as they are known, are never thrown away. What they say is that when the pot is reheated, a crust forms with what's left of the coffee, and that gives this pot coffee such a good flavor. And the truth is that coffee from the farms, regardless of the method used, will always be a coffee that is fully enjoyed.