Espresso Your Love

Cuban Coffee (Café Cubano), is made with Café ESPRESSO, the bold, strong coffee that we associate with romantic Italian sidewalk cafés (and now Starbucks). Enjoying a cup of it is a deep and almost-revered tradition in my Cuban culture as well.  I have many memories of my family’s after-dinner “cafecito”—a small coffee—as the basis for long (and often-animated) conversations at the table.  (By the way, these after-dinner conversation are such an ingrained and much-loved part of a Cuban family meal that we have a name for it: sobremesa [so-breh-meh’-sah].  Isn’t that lovely?  The family not running off after a meal, but staying to chat and discuss the events of the day?)

Some readers of this blog may stay away from espresso because it has more caffeine per unit volume than most drinks, but because it’s served in small vessels—usually in a demitasse or even smaller cups—it actually has less caffeine than an 8-ounce cup of drip-brewed coffee! Now, that’s a surprise! The brewing process makes the flavors more concentrated, which tend to be a bit too concentrated for me, so I make a cortadito, which in Spanish means “small cut,” meaning that you “cut” the intensity of the coffee by adding steamed milk to it.  Not to be confused with lattés and cappuccinos, and café au lait (or since we’re “speaking” Spanish today, café con leche), a cortadito is still served in a demitasse.

Yesterday was a lovely day in central Ohio; the perfect time to serve ESPRESSO cortaditos for two in the garden.

But first, how to make it.

Nothing fancy…the stove-top ESPRESSO maker I’ve had for years. This is the small version, which makes 1 or 2 cups, and I have a much larger one for family serving.

My family’s espresso of choice is Café Bustelo, now available at many large grocery stores or online. (It’s also available as decaf, as well as instant. I use the instant to make a bold cup of American coffee—it’s delish.)

This won’t be a complete how-to, nor will it be technical, but the reservoir below the coffee basket holds the water, and the coffee basket is filled completely, and the coffee tamped.  I use the bottom of my coffee measure to tamp it.  There is no measuring—you fill the basket, tamp, and refill and tamp as necessary.

Can you smell it? The brewed coffee bubbles up through the central core. The wonderful aroma of coffee wafts through the house.

This is how we enjoyed our cafecito in the garden.

The demitasses are fairly new to me—an auction win I was thrilled about. Six blue and white demitasses! And the darling demitasse spoons I’ve had for years.

Steamed milk to make our cortadito…

And of course, sugar…LOTS of sugar (or in my case, Splenda). Warning: This is not a drink where you want to cut back on the sugar! Such bold coffee needs the counterbalance the sugar provides.

And I should add that the flowers are real. I am NUTS about these two geraniums we have this year. Don’t they look like they have been hand-painted?!

As the sun moved it created wonderful shadows. I’ll share some of the pictures for your enjoyment.

Of course, we couldn’t be al fresco and not have a few of these!

 

It was lovely in the garden, and the cafecito…perfect. Won’t you join me? I’ll have it ready in a wink.

So tell me—are you a fan of ESPRESSO, or not so much? Have you ever tried it as a cortadito? I’d love to hear from you—even if you like the setting more than the café.

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Zuni