Café de Olla Poblano

This comes from Puebla's central highlands and the coffee towns of the Sierra Norte: Cuetzalan, Xicotepec, Huauchinango. The coffee grows in the humid mountains, but the drink belongs to the kitchen, to the clay olla on the stove, to the woman who knows when the piloncillo has melted just by the smell.

Café de olla is not espresso with cinnamon. No me vengas con atajos. You need coarse-ground Mexican coffee, piloncillo, canela de Ceilán, and a clean clay pot that has been used enough to know its work. The barro gives the coffee an earthy depth. A stainless pot will make coffee, yes. It won't make this cup.

In the markets around La Merced, and in the Puebla stalls where women sell tamales in the morning, café de olla is not decoration. It is breakfast, warmth, sugar, strength. Some cooks add clavo de olor. Some add orange peel. I use both, lightly. The coffee stays in charge. Saber cocinar es saber vivir, even when all you're making is one pot to wake the house.