Cuban Coffee (Moka Pot)

Two years ago, when Scott and I got back from our first cruise, we ended our trip with a tour around Miami and had our first taste of Cuban coffee. I liked it so much, that I bought some ground coffee while I was there and then immediately came home and bought a little Moka pot to brew it in, just as was recommended by our Cuban tour guide.

I was craving some the other day, and I tried to look up how to make it again on the recipe blog, only to discover that I NEVER documented the process in the first place! WHAT!? So, today I am correcting that mistake for anyone else that wants to make coffee with a Moka pot. You can use any coffee grounds you like, or you can order some Cuban coffee from the Internet. I will have more thoughts about why bother with Cuban coffee or a Moka pot at the end of the this post.

Cuban Coffee (Moka Pot)

Ingredients:

• ground coffee
• water

Directions: (see step-by-step photos below)

1. Fill the bottom half of the Moka pot with hot water up to the relief valve. (You may need to hold the pot with a hot pad at this point because the hot/boiling water will immediately heat up the metal of the pot.)
2. Fill the straining basket with coffee grounds and level it off (do not pack down). Place the basket into the bottom half of the Moka pot.
3. Screw on the top of the Moka pot and place it on a stove burner turned to high to bring to a boil.
4. Allow the coffee to brew until you hear a rumbling sound as the last of the steam and moisture comes to the surface.
5. Carefully remove pot from the burner (use a hot pad) and pour your coffee into serving cups.

Marsha's Notes:

Coffee made with a Moka pot is kind of halfway between an espresso and drip coffee, making it very strong and flavorful with a  bit of that "espresso foam" on the top during the first bit of brewing. Using a Moka pot does not automatically make the coffee Cuban (you can use any kind of coffee grounds you like in a Moka pot). This recipe is called "Cuban coffee" because I learned to make coffee in a Moka pot originally using Cuban coffee grounds that I purchased in Little Havana, Miami, Florida (I got the exact brand that the Cuban tour guide said was authentic Cuban coffee.) You can order this kind of coffee grounds from Amazon, if you would like to have a more authentic Cuban experience, but any regular ground coffee will do.

Order the Cuban Pilon coffee here: https://a.co/d/guGWzaf

Here is a video I took of the brewing process, so you can hear what the pot sounds like when it is done brewing and needs to be removed from the heat:

Tips for using a Moka pot to get a good cup of coffee:

• Use fresh grounds when possible.
• Use hot/boiling water in the bottom of the pot to start with. Hot water decreases brew time making for less bitter coffee.
• Store your pot with the top and bottom loosely screwed together to minimize pressure and compaction of the rubber gasket seal in the pot.
• Moka pots are not designed for finely ground espresso-type coffees, so use a regular ground coffee.
• Do not compact the grounds. Moka pots are designed to have the coffee basket filled completely to the top and leveled off with loosely packed coffee for the best filtration during brewing.
• Never under or over fill your basket or it messes with the end result of the coffee because of the design of the brew process.
• How much coffee you make is completely dependent on the size of Moka pot you use. Moka pots are sold by "cup size" and think of each cup size as being equivalent to one shot of espresso. So the one-cup Moka pot makes one equivalent shot of espresso. The one cup Moka use about 6-7 grams of ground coffee.
• If you are making coffee just for yourself and only want a little, a one-cup pot is great. If you want to have have two shots of coffee, or make a larger drink with add-ins like a latte or iced coffee, you might want to consider the two-cup pot. 
• Our tour guide was really funny when he was describing how to make and use Cuban coffee. He said something like, "Most people have one cup (shot) of Cuban coffee to start their day. If you had a bad night of sleep or need some extra energy, two cups is fine. Three cups... you die..." Ha, ha! That's how strong it can be. (Don't worry, you won't die.)

Here are two helpful videos I found on Youtube to learn more about using a Moka pot:

https://youtu.be/rpyBYuu-wJI?si=Hg6iqotYqoLJESBL

https://youtu.be/jWWVi25oLNA?si=buJnUu9910m93vj0

Here are some step-by-step photos of the process.

Gather your pot and coffee grounds.

Take your pot apart. You should have three pieces; top, bottom and basket.

Fill the bottom of the pot with hot water. I am using water from our special hot water tap that has extra hot water in it.

It's hard to see, but the water comes to just below the relief valve.

Fill the basket with loosely packed, leveled off coffee grounds.

Place the basket into the bottom half of your pot.

Screw the top onto the bottom and place your pot on the stove. 

If you leave the lid open, not only can you tell when brewing begins and be prepared to remove the pot from the burner once brewing is completed (because for these smaller pots, it happens really fast), but you also get to see the first bits of coffee coming to the surface with that yummy foam (see above).

Once your pot starts to sputter and rumble, signaling that all the water is gone from the bottom of the pot, use a hot pad and remove the pot from the burner and pour your coffee into serving cups.

This coffee is really strong, so I need sweetener and creamer in mine.

3-Ingredient Pumpkin Spice Latte Cake

Looking for a low calorie dessert option, I stumbled upon this pumpkin spice latte cake recipe. You make it in a round cake pan, slice the cake into 8 equal pieces, and each piece is only about 130 calories! Just note, you only use part of a can of pumpkin and only part of a boxed cake mix. This cake is much less sweet than a normal cake because of the added coffee, but you can easily dial-down the amount of coffee you use, or omit it entirely and just use water instead. I liked it, but people with a sweet-tooth  or a non-coffee lover might be less thrilled or demand some frosting. You can find the original recipe here: https://www.hungry-girl.com/recipe-makeovers/psl-cake

3-Ingredient Pumpkin Spice Latte Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp. instant coffee granules (dissolved in 1/2 cup hot water)
• 1 3/4 cups (about 1/2 box) moist-style spice cake mix
• 3/4 cup canned pure pumpkin
• Optional toppings: light whipped topping, pumpkin pie seasoning

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-inch round cake pan with nonstick spray.
2. In a glass or mug, stir to dissolve coffee granules in 1/2 cup hot water.
3. Transfer coffee to a large bowl, and add cake mix and pumpkin. Stir until completely smooth and uniform. (Batter will be thick.)
4. Spread batter into the pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean, 25 - 30 minutes.
5. Let cool completely, about 30 minutes in the pan and 30 minutes out of the pan on a cooling rack.
6. Serve topped with whipped cream. 
7. MAKES 8 SERVINGS

Nutrition- 1/8th of cake: 127 calories, 1.5g total fat (1g sat. fat), 212mg sodium, 27g carbs, 1g fiber, 14g sugars, 1.5g protein

Marsha's Favorite Protein Breakfast Shake

For a long time now, maybe even a year or more, my favorite breakfast to help me watch my calories yet stay happy is a protein shake cut with cold brew coffee and mixed with a flavored syrup. I have stumbled upon two different flavor combinations (one for a vanilla shake, and one for chocolate) that are my absolute favorites! I wanted to share so I don't forget.

Marsha's Favorite Protein Breakfast Shake

Ingredients:

• 11 oz. protein shake
• 4 oz. cold brew
• 4 pumps flavored syrup

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together and enjoy. 
2. Adjust amounts of coffee and syrup to taste.

Marsha's Notes:

For the vanilla protein shake- 4 pumps of Jordan's Skinny Syrup Cinnamon Dulce flavor turns this into a a horchata shake! So good!

For the chocolate protein shake- 4 pumps of Jordan's Skinny Syrup Caramel Fudge Waffle Cone pairs so yummy!!! I absolutely love it!

To keep my drink cold while I sip on it throughout the morning at my desk without watering it down with ice, I like to use a freezer water bottle that has the crackled gel lining. Then my shake doesn't get warm, but it also doesn't get watery!

Full-Disclosure- I use the exact same freezer bottle as shown in the image. When I make my drink, I don't measure my cold brew. I just put my shake in first, then I fill up the bottle with cold brew until it comes about a half inch above where you see the blue grip on this bottle. Then I add my pumps of syrup and stir with the straw that that bottle comes with before putting the lid on. My best guess is that it is about 4 oz, but depending on how strong you like your coffee flavor, you can totally adjust the amounts.

I started making my drinks this way because, the way I see it, I can sweeten my cold coffee with creamer and sweetener, or I can use my protein shake as my creamer and sweetener instead. Works for me!

Dirty Chai Tea Latte

I really love chai tea latte, and so I mixed things up by adding some additional flavored syrup to it and a splash of strong coffee to make it dirty. The results were amazing!!! So I don't forget, here's the recipe.

Dirty Chai Tea Latte

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbl Mystic Chai Latte powder mix
• 8 oz hot water
• 1 pumps Jordan's Skinny Syrup Cinnamon Vanilla
• 1/4-1/2 cup cold brew coffee

Directions:

1. Using very hot water, mix the chai powder until completely dissolved. 
2. Add syrup flavoring and cold brew coffee to taste. Stir and enjoy!

Marsha's Notes:

To get very hot water, I used my Keurig.

I just poured in about "an inch" of cold brew into the latte, so how much I used is a bit of a mystery, but I imagine it was about a 1/4-1/2 cup. You can totally adjust all of this to your tastes. Like more coffee flavor... add more... need more chai... go for it.

I get my chai powder from Sam's Club in a big container. Other chai mixes will probably work just as well, so use your favorites and adjust the flavors as needed.

To save on calories and sugar, I used Jordan's Skinny Syrup brand, the cinnamon vanilla flavor for this drink. You can use any flavor you like or even leave it out. You can sometimes find these in stores, but I order mine from the Internet.

Here is my post on how to make your own cold brew coffee... but they also often have premade bottles of cold brew in the grocery store right by the milk and coffee creamers. The flavor of coffee beans you use in your cold brew could also impact the flavor and require some adjustment for this recipe.

How to make cold brew- https://1brother2sisters.blogspot.com/2020/07/cold-brew-coffee.html

Cold Brew Coffee

For my birthday, my sister gave me a cold brew coffee pot. It's pretty simple to use and I really love it. I wanted to document how to make the coffee here so I don't have to keep looking it up in the pamphlet. I also will put down my favorite way to drink the cold brew (in case you are curious) AND why I like it so much. So read on, if you want to know!

Mine is a 1 quart Takeya brand brewer. You can get one just like here using this link: https://www.amazon.com/Takeya-10310-Patented-Airtight-Silicone/dp/B00FFLY64U

Basic 1 Qt. Recipe: 1 cup grounds to 1 quart water

Instructions: Put about 1 cup of coffee grounds in the filter. For this model of brewer, once filled, screw the filter into the base of the lid. Fill the pitcher with cold water until it is about a inch or two from the top. Lower the filter into the pitcher (it should be attached to the lid at this point) and screw the lid down tight to seal. Swirl the pitcher to get the grounds all nice and wet and then place in the fridge overnight. The next day, remove the filter.

Basically, that's it!

Marsha's Favorite Way To Drink Cold Brew:

This might sounds weird, but hear me out... So I like my coffee with sweetener and creamer, right? And chocolate in coffee makes it a mocha, right? So what if I take a sweet, creamy, chocolate-y protein shake as my breakfast and top it off with some cold brew?!!! I get my breakfast and my coffee all in one! How much coffee you add is totally up to your taste, but I'd say I use somewhere around a 1/2 cup of coffee cold brew concentrate to 1 protein shake. You can use any flavor of shake that you think would go good in coffee, so vanilla shakes are totally an option.

Tips for Making Cold Brew:

• When filling the pitcher with water, you have to leave room at the top so when you put the filter in, the water doesn't overflow. 
• If you under-fill the pitcher, you can always open the lid and add just a touch more water. 
• This model is supposed to be leak-proof, so be sure to tighten the lid and you should be safe to swirl and shake the pitcher around to get the grounds all wet at the start of brewing. This ensures no pockets of dry grounds in the middle of the filter. 
• Being leak-proof also allows you to store this pitcher on it's side if you are short on space in your fridge.
• It recommends, for stronger more even flavor, to swirl the pitcher a couple times during brewing if you want.
• It also recommends using filtered water and course ground coffee. I feel like the mesh of the filter is really quite fine, so most coffee grounds are going to work and stay put in the filter, so making sure it's "course ground" (as opposed to regular ground, which is much easier to find in the store) isn't a huge concern for me. I say, use what you have... use what you like.
• When the coffee is as strong as you like it, remove the filter. I usually make it sometime the day before I want to use it, but I'm not too strict about the time frame... at least overnight, if not closer to 24 hours. The idea is to make a coffee concentrate but if you brew it less long or use fewer grounds, you will get a coffee that is less concentrate and closer to a regular coffee brew.

Benefits of Cold Brew:

As a person who is sensitive to bitter tastes, coffee has become an acquired taste for me and I still only drink it with sweetener and creamer. Cold brew tends to have a FAR LESS bitter taste than hot brew, which is AWESOME for someone like me. 

Also, if you like a "flavored" coffee bean like French vanilla or hazelnut, I have found that with many hot flavored coffees, once brewed, you can only smell the flavor but not taste it very much. So the hot coffee might SMELL like French vanilla, but it still tastes like black coffee. HOWEVER, with cold brew those flavors really become much more prominent in the drink so you can TASTE it as well as smell it.

Also, this might seem obvious, but if you like iced coffee, cold brew is already cold and ready to go whenever you are. It doesn't continue to get more bitter as it sits so the pitcher can be in you fridge for up to two weeks and taste the same as it did the morning it was initially ready. And unlike hot brew, you don't have to wait for it to get cold to use it or water it down with extra ice to get it cold.

Other Ways to Drink Cold Brew (Including HOT Recipes):

Keep in mind that cold brew coffee of this manner is really a coffee concentrate, depending on how long you let the coffee steep before removing the filter. So you often need less cold brew concentrate to flavor whatever drink you are preparing. Think espresso, only less bitter with cold brew. How strong the cold brew is depends on how long it steeps and the strength of the coffee used, so proportions in these recipes will vary to taste.

A few recipe ideas from the pamphlet are:

• Basic hot coffee- 1 part reheated concentrate with two parts hot water. Sweeten, cream, and flavor as desired.
• Basic iced coffee- 1 part cold concentrate with two parts milk and/or water over ice. Sweeten, cream, and flavor as desired.
• Cafe au Lait- 2 oz. cold brew with 6 oz. milk heated up. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
• Coffee Smoothie- 3 oz. cold brew, 3/4 cup frozen yogurt, 1/2 cup ice and 1 1/2 tsp honey mixed in a blender until smooth.
• Sparkling Coffee- 1 cup cold brew with 3 oz sparkling water served over ice.
• Caffe Macchiato- 1 oz. cold brew heated and topped with 1/4 cup hot milk that has been frothed to foam.
• Cafe Francais- Beat 1 cup heavy cream until fluffy. Add 1/4 cup powdered sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Split cream between 4 mugs. Heat 3 cups cold brew with 1 cup water and 1 tsp vanilla until hot. Pour hot coffee over cream in mugs and serve.

Marsha's Pumpkin Spice Iced Coffee

I love to be able to save a little money and make my own recipes at home for the things that I might splurge on when I am out and about. So I created my own version of the super yummy pumpkin spice iced coffee! Enjoy!

Marsha's Pumpkin Spice Iced Coffee

Ingredients:

• 1 coffee pod of your choice (I used Wide Awake Coffee Co.'s French Vanilla)
• 1/4 cup simple syrup
• 1-2 pumps Torani's Brown Sugar Cinnamon Syrup
• splash Coffee Mate Pumpkin Spice Creamer

Directions:

1. Brew an 8 oz. cup of coffee of your choice. 
2. Let cool. 
3. Fill a 20 oz. cup 1/3 full of ice cubes. 
4. Add 1/4 cup simple syrup (I like Torani's Sugar Free version for zero calories), 1-2 pumps of Torani Brown Sugar Cinnamon Syrup, a splash to 1/4 cup Coffee Mate Pumpkin Spice Creamer (or to your taste). 
5. Stir. Top with whipped cream sprinkled with cinnamon sugar for a fun finish. Enjoy!