Hearts in my Café con leche
I recently visited my favorite Cuban eatery for some amazing food and a perfect Café con leche. This inspired me to share a little about Cuban coffee.

Café Cubano
AKA Cuban Espresso;
is an espresso shot that is sweetened with demerara sugar (natural brown raw sugar) as it is being brewed (percolated,) but the name covers other drinks that use Cuban espresso as their base. Cafecito and Cuban Coffee are a couple other names used.

Cortadito
Cuban Espresso with a float of steamed milk. The word cortado is the past participle of the Spanish verb cortar (to cut.) This is because a dash of warm milk is being used to cut the espresso shot (like the italian caffé macchiato.)

Café Bombón
Espresso served with sweetened condensed milk in a 1:1 ratio. Bombón means chocolate in spanish.

Café con leche
Cuban Espresso unsweetened with steamed (or scalded) milk (like a caffé latte.) My favorite, but I actually like it with a little demerara sugar

Carajillo
A classic spanish cocktail combining coffee and rum typical throughout Spain and Latin America. Folk etymology dates the origins back to the Spanish occupation of Cuba. Combine Café Cubano, rum, Licor 43, demerara sugar, chantilly cream.

That’s all for my little Ode to Café Cubano

Have you ever tried any of these? Or something similar.

Fun Fact: Sugar is the principal agricultural economy in Cuba. In two years after World War II, the price of sugar in Cuba went from 4 cents a pound to more than 20 cents a pound. They make some good sugar!