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

by Tom Cloyd - 7 min. read - (reviewed 2024-04-30:1808)

Contents of this page…

• Introduction
• Ingredients
• Preparation
• For a 1-pint portion…
• For 1 cup

Introduction

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”.

“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.

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 that were actually 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.)

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 if you try it 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.

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

• Almonds, whole, non-blanched (may be lightly toasted) - 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
• almond extract (optional) - 1/2 t
• cayenne, ground (optional) - 1/4 to 1/2 t (I have not tried this yet, but several recipes suggested it was commonly added. I would start with just a pinch in a 2-cup batch, and go up from there, to determine personal preference, if any.)
• vanilla extract - 1 t, added after mix + liquid is heated, but before stirring

 

 

 

 

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 4-5 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.

I put a sturdy metal strainer over a medium-sized bowl, dump the mix into the strainer, and use a plastic mixing spoon to press it through 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 up well, then add to the mix.

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.

For a 1-pint portion…

I use a 1 quart wide-mouth canning jar. Into it goes 62 gr. of the mix (= 6 T, or 3 coffee measures, pressed down as you would brown sugar), plus 2 heaping t of instant decaf. coffee. (Alternatively, add 1 cup of double strength regular coffee, or 2 cups of regular coffee, with whatever creamer you prefer - but see note below.)

To my dry ingredients I add 1 cup each of soy milk and water, then microwave the bottle for 5.5 minutes. (Your time will vary depending on the wattage of your microwave, and whether you use hot coffee, regular strength coffee, or cold double-strength extract, or mix it up the way I do with soy milk and cold water.)

How ever you do it, you want to end up with 2 cups of liquid plus 6 T (62 gr.) of the mix.

I then microware the jar for 5.5 minutes

When it’s good and hot, I stir it with a long-handled teaspoon as vigorously as possible for about 30 seconds. A nice “head” will develop.

 

For 1 cup

Use a 1 pint or 1 quart canning jar. Alternatively, you can use a straight-sided coffee cup and fill it only half full with liquid. After heating and stirring, add the rest of the liquid.

Use 3 T of mix. Microware it for 3.5 minutes.

 

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