Mexico’s Cafe de Olla (pot coffee) is a velvety, rich, and sometimes spicy way to begin the day. While the drink is enjoyed in many parts of Mexico, it’s especially popular in the country’s premier coffee-growing region, the southern state of Chiapas.
Cafe de Olla came into existence shortly after coffee became an important export crop for Mexico in the late 1800s. During the Mexican Revolution of the early 1900s, women soldiers–known as Adelitas after Adela Velarde Pérez, a nurse from Ciudad Juarez–created the drink. Cafe de Olla was said to be a favorite of Emiliano Zapata, a leader of the revolution and the founder of a land reform movement called Zapatismo and which has since morphed into the modern Zapatista movement.
Both coffee and the Zapatista movement are integral to daily life in modern Chiapas, and the two support each other. Zapatista farming cooperatives in Chiapas grow and sell their coffee through fair trade markets and, in return, a portion of the proceeds help finance health and education programs that benefit Zapatista communities.
Many Mexican restaurants that offer traditional breakfasts also offer cafe de olla.
I use a percolator to make mine, but the traditional way to prepare cafe de olla at home is to add piloncillo (raw cane sugar) and cinnamon to water and simmer it–traditionally in an olla de barro (clay pot)–until the sugar dissolves. Then add ground coffee to the simmering liquid, cover it, and remove it from the heat. After steeping, separate the coffee from the grounds and serve. In addition to cinnamon, you can also add ingredients such as star anise, cloves, chili, orange peel, atole, pinole, and cacao while the coffee is steeping. The stimulating effects of caffeine from coffee, theobromine from the cacao, and cinnamaldehyde from cinnamon and cloves, plus the nutrition from cacao, athole, and pinole helped sustain Mexican revolutionaries during their long struggle for independence from Spain. It just might help us get through our days as well.
