EricZeiler Senior Member Joined: 29 Dec 2003 Posts: 51 Location: Los Angeles, CA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Gaggia Espresso Grinder: Solis Maestro Plus Vac Pot: None Drip: None Roaster: Popcorn Pumper
Posted Wed Jan 5, 2005, 2:54pm Subject: Cafe Cubano
One of my favority cafes in Philadelphia (Cafe Clave... recently closed, unfortunately) used to make an excellent drink they called a Cafe Cubano. It was basically a cortado (or machiatto... still don't really know the difference), but with a twist. The owner would dose once, tamp, and then spoon a small bit of unrefined brown sugar, dose again (the second shot), and then tamp again. He would pull a double shot and then add a little bit of foamed milk. It had a really delicious, deep sweetness, definitely better than adding sugar post-brew.
bluesforpablo Senior Member Joined: 25 Jan 2004 Posts: 86 Location: North Carolina Expertise: Professional
Drip: French Press Roaster: Counter Culture Coffee
Posted Wed Jan 5, 2005, 3:47pm Subject: Re: Cafe Cubano
I have been considering adding this to my menu when I open. My only concern with the method you describe is the suger could get into the grouphead. I found these two links when I was researching this drink:
Posted Thu Jan 6, 2005, 6:30am Subject: Re: Cafe Cubano
would that cause channelling and uneven extraction? since the sugar and coffee ground have different size particles? i think it might work in a moka pot, but not under 9 bar extraction. anyone has tried this with naked pf?
Posted Thu Jan 6, 2005, 8:16am Subject: Re: Cafe Cubano
I think I might try this...
BTW, I believe the difference between a macchiato and a cortado is simply that of the milk. I think a "traditional" macchiato is more of a dry dollop of foam that mostly rests on top of the espresso, and a cortado is more like that which most would call a macchiato: It mixes with the espresso.
karlInSanDiego Senior Member Joined: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 11 Location: San Diego, CA - USA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Melita + Salton (seriously) Grinder: Black & Decker burr Drip: Gevalia freebee Roaster: not there yet
Posted Tue Jan 11, 2005, 4:44pm Subject: Re: Cafe Cubano
Our local café, makes a Cubano with sweetened condensed milk under a shot. This is how I've had coffee served in "Little Saigon" in Garden Grove, CA, also. Unfortunately, I didn't know that Vietnamese coffee's were served that way, and much like a black and tan pour, it's not apparent until you've drunk half of the coffee. Then you're left with super sweet milk with the slight taste of coffee ;^)
The other embarrasing part of that Little Saigon story was the hot tea that they served with coffee. It was served in a pilsner glass, and at first I thought the waitress misunderstood my order and was serving me a warm headless beer!
Posted Mon Jan 17, 2005, 5:04pm Subject: Re: Cafe Cubano
default, from my experience, I have never noticed any channeling involved when pulling cubano's, I'm not pouring on naked but I do always check my puck's, especially when I'm trying something different. I have a theory as well, I place the brown sugar on top of the espresso puck, so I think that the brown sugar dissolves first and then the water extracts as much coffee as it can hold above and beyond that, making it hard for overextraction and channeling.... also, even if you did get some channeling I don't think you would notice since, you are adding an incredible amount of sugar and thus would drown out the "bitter" taste that would come with overextraction.
it would probably be better to disitribute the sugar throughout the puck, but I haven't played with this enough (and only serve it to the odd customer usually close friends of owner or owner himself etc.) to try that out. If I get a chance I may mess with it some more this week and see what I can produce for you.
Daniel
Dan Streetman Cuvee Coffee Roasting Company Austin, TX
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