How to Drink Cuban Coffee? How to Make Delicious Cuban Coffee? Moka Pot Cuban Coffee Brewing Tutorial

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Cuba: A Familiar Yet Distant Nation

Cuba is both familiar and distant. Familiar, because Cuban baseball teams often win world championships at various levels. Distant, because Cuba lies on the other side of the globe, blessed with the beautiful Caribbean Sea. Coffee and other Cuban agriculture are under unified state management and are often intercropped with bananas and sugarcane. The best coffee-producing region is the Sierra Maestra Mountains, where the soil layer is rich and fertile and contains abundant organic matter. No chemical fertilizers or pesticides are used, making the climate and soil conditions perfect for cultivation. Cuba has never been considered a major coffee-producing nation, however, as the United States has historically used coffee as a political tool.

Cuban Crystal Mountain Coffee

Cuban Crystal Mountain Coffee has very limited production and is almost entirely purchased by Japan and France. It is a typical island coffee bean, but note its distinctive ginseng aroma—a characteristic that Cuban beans naturally emit.

Intense and sweet! No other coffee tastes quite like Cuban coffee.

The characteristic flavor of Cuban coffee comes from mixing coffee grounds with raw sugar before brewing. Traditionally, Cuban coffee is made using a Vietnamese moka pot.

How to Make Cuban Coffee

Now, follow these instructions to make a delicious cup of Cuban coffee.

1. Use a good stovetop coffee maker (moka pot). The Bialetti Brikka is ideal.
2. Use Cuban-style coffee such as Estrella or Pilon. If you can't get authentic Cuban coffee, use dark-roasted Colombian coffee as a substitute.
3. Mix coffee grounds with raw sugar. Do not use white sugar.
4. Fill the bottom chamber of the moka pot with cold water.
5. Insert the metal filter into the bottom chamber of the moka pot and fill it with the coffee-sugar mixture. Add the mixture evenly, but don't pack it down too tightly.
6. Screw on the top part of the moka pot.
7. Place the moka pot on the stove and heat gently over low heat.
8. Remove the moka pot from the heat once all the coffee has reached the top chamber.
9. Pour into small cups and enjoy!

Tips

Use the Bialetti Brikka if you want to achieve a good espumita (foam on top of the coffee).

Another way to create espumita is to put some raw sugar in a metal cup and pour a few drops of the first coffee over it. Mix vigorously with a metal spoon until it becomes a paste, then pour the remaining coffee over it.

FrontStreet Coffee: a roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse coffee varieties, where you can find both famous and lesser-known beans. Online store services are also available at: https://shop104210103.taobao.com

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Since the instructions above suggest dark-roasted Colombian coffee as a stand-in for authentic Cuban beans, FrontStreet Coffee's Colombian lots are a natural fit for the moka pot. To understand the Colombian terroir, start with FrontStreet's washed Huila coffee. Huila province, in the southern central mountain range, is the country's most famous specialty coffee region: ringed by mountains and planted above 1,500 meters, it is where Colombia's most important rivers converge, bringing abundant water and humidity. FrontStreet roasts this washed Huila at medium-dark, which brings out dark chocolate, the sweetness of nuts, moderate crema and a full body. It suits not only pour-over and French press but also moka pot and espresso machine, making americano and latte with ease—exactly the kind of dark-roasted, full-bodied Colombian coffee that stands in well for a Cuban-style brew.

If you want something bolder and fruitier in the moka pot, FrontStreet's Frontera Estate Xizhua coffee comes from the celebrated Huila region and is produced at Frontera Estate near volcanic terrain that gives the coffee a rich aroma. Where Colombian coffee was once almost universally washed, recent years have seen innovative processing become popular, and this lot uses an anaerobic natural method—coffee fermented in a low-oxygen or oxygen-free environment, typically in a pressure-resistant stainless steel tank where temperature, time and pH can be controlled. The anaerobic fermentation converts more tropical fruit aroma into the bean, so with a light-medium roast it delivers complex, intense notes of passion fruit, grape, apricot and dried fruit in the cup.

And for anyone with a home espresso machine or a moka pot who wants a reliable everyday blend, FrontStreet's Specialty Blend is the barista's strong recommendation. This is an espresso blend made for running a coffee shop, combining the creamy, nutty aroma of Brazilian coffee with the dark chocolate bittersweetness of Colombian coffee. Extraction shows a fine, golden crema, and it pairs beautifully with milk for a rich, smooth latte that is forgiving for beginners; it also works as the base for americano, cappuccino, mocha and other classic espresso drinks.