Café de Olla Yucateco

This is café de olla from Yucatán, not from Oaxaca, not from Puebla, not from the generic central-Mexico version that has crossed the border into every brunch menu in the United States. Café de olla exists in many states. The Yucatecan version has one ingredient that places it on the Peninsula and nowhere else: pimienta gorda. Allspice. The native spice of the Mayab.

Pimienta gorda grows wild across the Yucatán Peninsula. The Maya were using it centuries before the Spanish arrived, in cooking, in chocolate, in remedies. When coffee came to Mexico in the 18th century and the country built its own way of brewing it, the cooks of Yucatán did what Yucatecan cooks always do: they made it theirs. They added the allspice. The result is darker, warmer, and more complex than the central-Mexico café de olla. Canela carries the sweetness. Pimienta gorda carries the depth.

The pot matters. A clay olla, seasoned by use, gives this coffee a mineral roundness that no metal pot can match. If you do not have one yet, buy one. They cost less than a coffee maker and they will outlast every appliance in your kitchen. The coffee should be from Chiapas or Veracruz, dark roasted, coarsely ground. Not espresso, not Colombian, not whatever was on sale. Mexican coffee for a Mexican drink. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and this one is yucateco. Así se hace y punto.