Craving some homemade Cuban coffee? Learn how to make this delicious beverage at home with three simple ingredients. There's no need to move to Miami or Cuba to get an amazing cup of café Cubano!
Looking for more tips and recipes? Make sure to read our post about making moka pot coffee and pour over coffee.
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About
Café Cubano is a traditional Cuban breakfast drink made from stovetop espresso sweetened with sugar and topped with a delicious sugar foam. This strong, black coffee is served in small cups and enjoyed with buttered and toasted Cuban bread, pan dulces, and other breakfast foods.
Café Cubano is known to be extra strong and bitter since it's prepared from dark roast beans that have been ground quite finely. Since this drink is bitter on its own, a lot of sugar is added. Due to rationing in years past, Cubans learned to stretch their coffee and enjoy it in small quantities.
Ingredients
Let's talk about the key ingredients. You won't need much to make this delicious recipe!
- Coffee: Start with ground Cuban beans, such as Café Bustelo, Pilon, or La Llave. If you can't find one of these brands, use medium ground whole beans.
- Water: Use filtered water for the best flavor.
- Sugar: Use white sugar, brown sugar, or a mixture of the two, and measure out one tablespoon of sugar per cup (i.e. 6 tablespoons for a 6-cup moka pot).
How to Make
- Fill the lower chamber of the moka pot with boiling water to just under the steam valve.
- Use a spoon to fill the funnel with ground coffee, tapping the side to remove air pockets. Do not pack in the grounds, or you'll have an inferior brew. Level the top with a knife.
3. Drop the funnel into the lower chamber, then screw on the upper chamber and place over low heat with the lid open.
4. In a few minutes, you'll hear the water boiling in the moka pot, and shortly the first few drops of espresso will come out. Watch it carefully!
5. Pour the first couple tablespoons of espresso into the sugar and stir to moisten. Don't add too much, or the espumita will not foam properly.
6. Place the moka pot back on the heat with the lid open and beat the sugar vigorously with a spoon (or a handheld electric mixer if you own one). Stop when it is a light caramel color, thickened, and trebled in volume.
7. When the stream of coffee is honey colored, close the lid and remove the moka pot from the heat.
8. Pour the espresso into the espumita and stir to combine. Let it stand for a minute to allow the espumita to float to the top.
9. Pour the café Cubano into small cups, making sure each cup gets some espumita.
10. Enjoy immediately!
Recipe FAQs
Traditional café Cubano is dark roast espresso that has been sweetened with sugar and is topped with a layer of foam called the espumita. This espresso drink is often served after dinner, or with a glass of hot milk (café con leche) and enjoyed at breakfast with buttered, toasted Cuban bread. It's popular among Cubans and Cuban Americans.
Café Cubano consists simply of brewed stovetop espresso mixed with sugar. The sugar is frothed with the first few drops of the brew to make a foam called espumita that floats on top of the espresso.
Its most unique features are its strong, bitter taste and dark color. Since the beans are roasted longer and ground finer, it has a rich, bitter flavor that needs sugar to balance it out.
Espresso is brewed under a lot more pressure than the traditional moka pot brewing method used for café Cubano, creating a crema (thin layer of foam) on top of the espresso, and it isn't sweetened until after brewing. Café Cubano is brewed in a moka pot rather than an espresso machine, is sweetened during the brewing, and its foam comes from sugar whipped with coffee rather than from high pressure.
Expert Tips
- Fill the lower chamber with boiling water instead of cold water for less bitter java and faster brewing time.
- When adding the grounds to the funnel, tap the side to level the grounds and remove air pockets. Don't tamp or pack them in.
- Use 1 tablespoon of sugar per cup (I did about 9 tablespoons for my 9-cup moka pot).
- Don't add too much espresso to the espumita at first; just enough to moisten it is good to start, then add a little more if needed.
- Want to make café con leche? Serve each cafecito with a taza (cup) of steamed milk to allow everyone to mix the espresso with milk to their preference.
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Recipe
Cuban Coffee (Café Cubano)
Ingredients
- 1.6 oz ground Cuban coffee, or medium-ground coffee
- 2 cups filtered water
- ½ cup white or brown sugar, or a mixture of the two
Instructions
- Fill the lower chamber of the moka pot with boiling water to just below the valve, then fill the funnel with ground coffee, tap the side to remove air pockets, and level the top with a knife. Do not tamp the grounds.
- Screw on the upper chamber and place the moka pot over low heat. (If you're using a gas stove, keep the flame smaller than the base of the moka pot.) After a few minutes, you'll hear the water begin to boil, and the espresso will start to come out of the top.
- While the water is heating, measure the sugar for the espumita into the creamer or a glass measuring cup. As soon as the first drops of espresso come out of the top of the moka pot, pour enough into the sugar to moisten it, then put the pot back on the heat. Whip the mixture with a spoon or an electric mixer until the espumita is light brown, thickened, and trebled in volume.
- Once the stream of espresso in the moka pot is honey colored, remove it from the heat and immediately pour the espresso into the creamer with the espumita. Stir to combine.
- Let the mixture stand until the espumita has floated to the top, then pour into tacitas (demitasse cups) and serve immediately.
Notes
- The ingredient measurements here are for a 9-cup moka pot. If you're using a 3 or 6-cup pot, you won't need as much of each ingredient.
- Use 1 tablespoon of sugar per cup (I did about 9 tablespoons for my 9-cup moka pot).
- Don't add too much coffee to the espumita at first; just enough to moisten it is good to start, then add a little more if needed.
- Want to make café con leche? Serve each cafecito with a tazo (cup) of steamed milk to allow everyone to mix it with milk to their preference.
- Get more tips for making a great moka pot brew in our blog post.
Nutrition
Serving sizes and nutritional information are only an estimate and may vary from your results.
Beth
The lovely espumita sweetens this very bitter coffee in a unique way. I love Cuban coffee! It’s great with espumita on top. I can see why Cubans have this at breakfast every morning.
Emma
Yes, this is just the right coffee drink to start off your day! Thanks for your kind review, Beth!
Alex
The coffee is sweet and frothy, and is very good! It is nice and warm, and the cups are so cute!
Emma
So glad you enjoyed it, Alex!