Mexican Spiced Coffee: Café de Olla

"Piloncillo" is unrefined whole cane sugar that ranges from light brown to darker brown, but which is not colored by molasses. It is common in Mexico, but it is also known as "panela" in a number of other countries in Central and South America. It can be easily found under one of those names in Latino grocery stores or in supermarkets, especially where there are fairly large numbers of residents of Latino heritage. It is generally not very expensive. Understand, you don't have to have piloncillo or panela to make Mexican coffee, as brown sugar is a great substitute (note: brown sugar typically is regular sugar that has an added amount of molasses, which then of course gives it the brown color).

 

Ingredients (4 to 5):

 

6 1/4 cups water

6 tablespoons ground dark coffee

2 cinnamon sticks (about 2 1/2 to 3 inches each)

2 cloves

1 star anise

1/3 to 1/2 cup dark brown sugar or piloncillo 

(optional) frothed milk 

Bring the water to a boil in a pan over medium heat. Add the cinnamon sticks, cloves, star anise and brown sugar or piloncillo. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Adjust heat to maintain a steady simmer. Add the coffee, stir, cover and cook for 4 to 6 minutes. Strain the coffee through a fine strainer. Top with some frothed milk, if desired.   

 

 With some frothed milk ...

WORD HISTORY: 

Burro-This word is distantly related to "pyre," a word of Greek derivation borrowed by Latin and borrowed by English from Latin, but with a likely reinforcement or even initial basis from Greek; it is also distantly related to "fire," a word from the Germanic roots of English. "Burro" goes back to Indo European "paewr/pehwr," with the meaning "fire." This gave transliterated Greek "pyr," with the same meaning, which spawned Greek "pyrros/pyrrhos," which meant "flame-colored;" thus, "reddish or reddish-yellow in color;" thus also, "reddish-brown." This was borrowed by Latin as "burrus," meaning "reddish-brown," which gave Latin the noun "burricus," which meant "small horse," which was "borrico" in Latin-based Spanish, meaning "a donkey." English borrowed the word as "burro" in the late 1700s by way of American English of what are now the southwestern states.