Mexican coffee - tastier, more nutritious, not available in stores!

by Tom Cloyd - 7 min. read - (reviewed 2024-12-02:1825 Pacific time)

Page contents…

Introduction ^
Ingredients ^
Preparation ^
Making the coffee

Introduction ^{^}

(UPDATED 2024-12-02: added a surprise spice, and I have a new preparation method. Details below…)

This is my morning coffee - a recently developed recipe. Morning coffee is nice. This is nicer, and also more interesting and nutritious. It’s a combination of coffee and “Mexican hot chocolate”. If you just want the hot chocolate, leave out the coffee in the recipe below and use all milk.

“Mexican hot chocolate” is a confusing topic. In books, and to a surprising degree online, recipes for this drink too often merely have you heat milk, then add a tablet of the commercially available Mexican hot chocolate, which isn’t always easy to find. (It also pales in comparison to the taste of this recipe!!!)

But surely this hot chocolate was not invented by some company. Surely there is an original, more indigenous version, I kept thinking, as I dug into the subject.

I did find recipes, and they were interestingly varied. One of the most interesting called for ground nuts, and I took that as my foundation. The ground nuts put little bits of nut in your coffee cup, and your last swallow will have a lot of them. Just remember how good they are for you! (Fiber, omega-3 fatty acids, etc.) They make the coffee richer tasting and thicker.

To this foundation, I added the expected cinnamon, but also a couple of other spices which occurred in some, but not all, recipes. The result is pleasingly complex. When I went back to taste-test the Mexican hot chocolate tablets for comparison, I found them boringly plain, and far too sweet.

So, this recipe wins on all fronts, for me. The ground nut flecks in your coffee may take some getting used to, but the smaller ones just remain suspended in the coffee and you’ll never know they’re theere. And, if you try the recipe without them I think you find something important is missing. More than that, the nuts lower the glycemic index of the coffee, moderating the effect of the caffeine (if your coffee has that) and the sugar. The nuts thus make the coffee even more healthy than it already is - by themselves and because of the effect they have on the rate at which the drink raises your blood sugar - it reduces the rate, and slower is better.

By all means tinker with the ingredients. You’ll find your own favorite version that way.

Makes: mix for twelve 2-cup servings (a pint is my usual serving size.) Each contains: 4 t sugar; 2 T + 2 t cocoa; 4 T nuts!
Preparation time: for a double batch - 50 min.
Total weight: 750 gr.; one serving - 62 gr
For one cup: 31 gr - 3 packed tablespoons

Ingredients ^{^}

About the cayenee pepper - this is very Mexican, but more than that it is very wonderful. Try it, and you find that it fits in wonderfully with the other spices.

almonds, whole, non-blanched (may be lightly toasted, but it’s not at all necessary) - 3/4 c
pecans, whole - 3/4 c (Note: pecans are native to the SW USA and northern Mexico. I have used walnuts with equal success, and now use them routinely in place of pecans.)
cacao, ground (cocoa powder, plain) - 1 cup (I use Costco’s organic fair-trade cacao powder)
sugar - 1/2 c
cinnamon, ground - 2 t
nutmeg (optional) - 1 t
salt - 1/8 t
cayenne, ground (optional) - 1/4 to 1/2 t (I use the larger amount, but I suggest you start with the smaller amount.)

Preparation ^{^}

This requires a food processor. I don’t see any other easy way to make it, because of the nuts. Don’t double the recipe unless you’re sure your processor can handle it. Mine is capacious, but cannot, so I just make two batches, and then pack it into a 32 oz repurposed jam jar.

I typically put the nuts in first, then add the sugar and cacao, then everything else, but I doubt that this much matters.

When you first turn on your processor, the cacao will cover the inside of the container, but keep it running and soon the oil in the nuts will contain the cacao.

After 30-60 seconds I stop the processor and whack the sides of the container sharply with a small flexible rubber scraper. This reduces the static electricity that will have been generated by the whirling blades and dry ingredients. Then you can scrape down the cacao powder that clinging to the container walls.

I then remove the processor blades and use a wooden or plastic chopstick to stir up the mix. Typically, the bottom layer is well-compacted and needs to be brought back into the main mix.

I grind and stir the mix 3 times, until it’s clear that no more grinding is actually occurring. The compacted layer on the bottom will be thick and solid at this point. After the last stirring, go on to the next step:

I put a sturdy metal strainer over a medium-sized bowl, dump the mix into the strainer, and use a plastic mixing spoon or rubber scraper to press it through the strainer. Just wipe the utensil against the mesh of the strainer. This breaks up the compacted bottom chunks and well mixes everything. I find that there are always some nut pieces that won’t pass through the strainer. These I put into my spice grinder and grind them well, then add them to the mix and stir the whole thing well.

When that’s done, a brief stir finishes the mixing, then I use a canning funnel to quickly get it into my repurposed jam jar, and press it down with the plastic spoon.

Making the coffee

I have developed a very distinct way of preparing this, and it works fabulously. Here are the steps, for my standard 2-cup version I make every morning:

Place a kitchen scale (I have one of the smaller Oso scales, and recommend it without reservation) on your table or counter, and place on it a 1 quart wide mouth canning jar (or something similar) with a canning funnel sitting on top of it.
Zero out the scale reading.
Put 62 grams of Mexican coffee mix into the jar. (This equals 6 T, or 3 coffee measures, pressed down as you would brown sugar.)
I use a double strength coffee extract I make myself - 1 cup of it, and add to it 1 cup of Costco vanilla soy milk. Alternatively, I use 4t of instant coffee and a cup of water, added at this stage - plus the soy milk, of course. The key idea at this point is to hold out 1/2 cup of the 2 c of liquid. I always hold out 1/2 c of the coffee extract. Regular milk could be substituted for the soy
Stir the mix if you wish, but it’s not necessary.
Heat the mix in your microwave (or on your stove - while stirring) until the nuts and cocoa mixture rises to the top of the liquid. Watch it, if it’s in the microwave, as it will boil over if over-heated. Once it rises, stop heating. In my microware this takes about 5 minutes and 15 seconds. If I’m making only a cup, it takes 3 minutes and 15 seconds.
Stir it vigorously - I find a long-handled teaspoon perfect for this. Then add the cold liquid held out, and stir again. You should have a nice foam on top now.

I don’t need to tell you what to do next….

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