Some of the best coffee projects we know of got their start on Kickstarter. From...
For the past twenty years, I have had the good fortune of living in a neighborhood that is largely Puerto Rican. This guarantees me two of the staples in life – great music and incredibly good coffee. You can’t miss the former, especially in the spring and summer when windows are open and salsa and merengue music spills from nearly every home on the block. The latter, the coffee, I discovered the first time that Maria, my neighbor upstairs, brought down a cup of coffee to me because she “made too much coffee this morning”. I was hooked with the first sip – rich with flavor and not a hint of bitterness. I asked what brand of coffee she used, and immediately went out and bought some to make for myself. It was better than my usual grind, but it didn’t even approach the glorious flavor of Maria’s coffee.
Over the years, various upstairs and next door neighbors have served me Puerto Rican style coffee. Over those same years, my tastes in coffee have become more refined and varied. I’ve acquired an appreciation for espresso, for cafezinho, for ca phe – in short, I have never met a coffee that I didn’t like. None of them even approach the love affair I have had with Puerto Rican coffee. It was another Maria in another neighborhood who finally taught me how to make it for myself.
Coffee was first brought to Puerto Rico from Costa Rica in the 1700s. Its climate, soil conditions and elevations made it an ideal place to grow coffee, and within a few decades, coffee had become the most important cash crop of the little island. Puerto Rican grown coffee was widely recognized as the best coffee in the world. Throughout the 1800s, coffee from Puerto Rico commanded premium prices throughout Europe and the United States. In 1899, two back to back hurricanes devastated the Puerto Rican coffee crops, and it was years before the coffee farmers were able to harvest. In the meantime, the changing political climate turned against Puerto Rican coffee growers. This came on the heels of Puerto Rico’s annexation to the United States after the Spanish-American War. For Puerto Rico, the result was an increase in export tariffs to their major European coffee markets. While it might have been offset by the removal of tariffs for coffee exported to the United States, American coffee drinkers favored Brazilian coffees. By the 1920s, sugar had replaced coffee as the island’s premier cash crop and export.
The difference in flavor between Brazilian and Puerto Rican coffee is pronounced. Brazilian coffee is lighter in flavor, with fewer complex undertones. Puerto Rican coffee is, by contrast, rich and full-bodied with a fully developed coffee taste. It has more body – it even feels different in the mouth and on the tongue. You CAN make coffee in this style from any type of coffee, obviously, and it will taste wonderful, but when you start with Puerto Rican coffee, you get the full experience of one of the best coffees in the world. As an added bonus, you’ll usually pay far less for Puerto Rican coffee than you do for even supermarket coffee, since it is a domestic product and growers pay no tariffs on imports.
Measure one cup of water for each cup of coffee into a saucepan. Turn on the heat and bring the water to a simmer. While the water is heating, measure out your coffee. This is one of the few types of coffee that I make with pre-ground coffee from a can or a brick pack. If you prefer to grind your own beans, use an espresso grind. Use one full, heaping tablespoon of ground coffee for every cup of coffee.
When the water is simmering but not boiling, add the coffee to the water. Stir it well for about one minute, keeping it below boiling. Turn off the heat beneath the pot, and let it brew for one minute, stirring once or twice.
After one minute, strain the coffee through a coffee sock, which you can purchase at any Latino grocery store for about three dollars. If you’re going to drink your coffee black, strain it directly into the coffee cups. If you like your coffee with milk and sugar – and I urge you to try it this way at least once even if you like your coffee black and unadorned – strain it into a large cup or pot.
Return the saucepan to the burner and turn on the flame. Add a quarter cup of milk and a teaspoon of sugar for each coffee into the saucepan. Heat the milk until it begins to foam around the edges, stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar. Pour the coffee back into the saucepan, and bring it to just below simmering again.
Pour the coffee mixture into mugs or cups and sit back to relax with one of the best cups of coffee you’ve ever had.
Some posts on our site may contain amazon affiliate links. We may earn affiliate commission from amazon when you purchase through those links.
Candita Wallace says
When we have coffee like our Abuela used to make, we will never forget where we were the taste, and who was around us, and the memories of dipping those crackers or bread into our coffee. Those memories are treasures. We should pass this on to our children.
Connie says
I grew up drinking that delicious Puerto Rican coffee my mami made. Dunking bread into it was my favorite thing to do as a child. Am trying to duplicated.
Tina Lajoy says
Visited Puerto Rico many years ago and have not had a chance to go back. I fell in love with the coffee, the beauty and the friendly people, been trying to duplicate the coffee we had each morning at a small cafe there.
Will try some of the recommendations.
Norma says
Just went t the isla after some 49 years.
I had cafe from McDonald’s and a ham & cheese sandwich in pan sobao, I was in heaven..I still could taste that coffee..I’m going back as soon as they permite just to have cafe con galletas de agua..
Connie says
You bring back memories.
Lola says
reading this brought back childhood memories and many smiles. funny how when you’re a kid you don’t think much about these things or maybe even you find some of the “old school” ways a bit odd. as a kid I’d see my mom use the colador (coffee sock), to me it was just how she made coffee. fast forward a few decades later (even after being gifted my treasured Bialetti espresso maker – in RED -yes, I’m Puerto Rican & love color in my kitchen), I went to the corner bodega in my Manhattanville (Harlem) neighborhood looking for a colador.
though I’m still fine tuning my brew I know that mine might never come close to how the elders made their cafecito. thank you for this post..
Fred Ravenscraft says
I have been to Puerto Rico many times and enjoy the Adjuntas coffee with goat’s milk.
Mary Ann Torres says
OMG. People think I‘m nuts with the saltines in coffee and my mom would put a block of cheese in the bottom of the cup. Edam, I think it was, with the red rind kind.
The best coffee EVER!
Evelyn DeLaVega says
Yes Mary Ann i remember drinking coffee this way with the saltines from the green Keebler can and the cheese. I still drink it this way on my days off.
When I tell folks at work they think I’m nuts. They don’t know what they’re missing .
Palmera Ayala says
OMG…. Yes…Galletas por soda
Fran says
When I was little (I’m 60 now), grandma would put the coffee in the coffee sock, put it in the sauce pan with water and let it boil. It would sit there all day until anyone wanted coffee. Either right away or later in the day. It was nice strong coffee. There was no such thing as old coffee to us. I never liked black, but since it was strong, I liked to add milk and sugar to it. Once in a while we’d dump a bunch of saltine crackers in the coffee or dip the bread and eat it. In the military, the guys banned me from making their coffee because they said I made mud. LOL. Never liked the American watered coffee you get from those coffee pots. Sure, crackers and bread looks like vomit to others, but to me, it was my way of remembering grandma because we only drank coffee when we went to her house in NYC. I’ve also noticed that the beans of today have lost that great flavor of the old days. They taste more like burned ashes. Evan Nescafe or Bustelo taste like crap. I am still searching for a bean that will bring back that grandma brewed coffee taste so I can add my milk, or almond milk as I use now a days, and sugar, or stevia, which is my new thing.
Tania says
Have you tried Pilon . If your grandma was Puerto Rican she probably used that … I was born in NYC but spent many years in P.R , most people would drink pilon or cafe bustelo <~which I don’t like ! I did the same as you …. crush ritz crackers or soda crackers until it looked like baby poop lol . Soooo good though , or about 3 slices of bread to dip. Yum ! I still make my pilon the old fashion way with the colador sock , taste like heaven in a cup !
Fran says
Thanks. I just saw Pilon at the commissary and wondered about it. There were no instructions as to what kind of coffee it was exactly, like Colombian or where it was made. Just a vacuum packed packet. But I might give that one a try then, since you sound like you love the same old fashioned flavors I do.
Danielle says
I use Oro from PR. It is easy to bring back and relatively inexpensive.
Francesca Roman says
Thank you. I did try the Pilon as someone suggested and it’s working good enough. Since I don’t normally drink coffee, it will last me a looong time. LOL
Anne says
Try Bulletproof coffee beans. love them
Fran says
I won’t try bulletproof. Tried their Sleep stuff and it was useless. The website gave me a bad vibe anyway. As if it’s more for their wealth than for our health. Many sites are like that. I’ve noticed even the health ranger pedalling their stuff at outrageous prices and not fully researching all the side effects that some of the ingredients have. Like, knowing the himalayan salts don’t have enough of a mineral content to affect our health, yet, he jumped on the bandwagon to toot it to sell it to others at exorbitant prices. Everyone out there is in it for themselves. I heard a lot of people like their coffee. I just won’t bother with it. Pilon is working just fine.
Connie says
Modern coffee makers don’t bring out the delicious goodness of coffee. Mami used a coffee sock to brew the coffee as you described. Abuela would grind coffee beans back then. A life time ago.
Fran says
Those were the good old days. If we should ever loose power, we’ll go back to those days and at least, some of us know what to do.