Cafe Mexicana

Wednesday's Recipe: Roy and I had this many times on our trips to Mexico. It is a really nice drink that you can have any time of day!

As Jon Butt says, "Even the term Mexican coffee has a sense of holiday, sunshine and fun about it. You'd imagine. With Colombia just down the road, that Mexican coffees would be of the strong, full-bodied variety. Well, you'd be wrong. Read on.

Of the five million or so bags of coffee produced in Mexico, they consume just over half themselves before selling the rest on, mostly to the USA. Organic coffee is a Mexican speciality and, with most of their beans grown on small farms, you can be assured of a consistent quality without any of the mass-farming additives to dilute the taste.
Although the majority of their Arabica coffee beans are grown in the Vera Cruz region of Mexico, it's the Altura farms in areas like Oaxaca that wow the taste buds of coffee aficionados. Why do you think they keep most of it for themselves?"

Cafe Mexicana

After a hard morning's toil why not relax with this Mexican coffee recipe:

1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
6 wedges of Mexican chocolate (or 1/3 cup cocoa powder)
6 cups boiling water allowed to cool for three minutes
2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup ground coffee beans (ground coarse for press pot) - Mexican preferably!
whipped cream to garnish

Combine the milk, vanilla, chocolate and sugar in a saucepan and heat gently whilst stirring together. Don't let it boil.

Meanwhile, add the coffee grounds and cinnamon in a French press coffee maker and add the near boiled water to make coffee as usual.

Add the coffee to milk saucepan and mix together. Serve in cappuccino glass cups and add whipped cream and cinnamon sticks to garnish. Enjoy!

*Not too sweet but makes a really nice treat!