Sonny Crockett loved his. Mark Cuban supposedly never drinks one. But tens of thousands of them are served every single morning in Miami: the Cafe Cubano. And we’re going to show you how to make one.
Traditionally made with a darker roast, the cafe cubano is an ‘espresso’ based beverage that uses sugar to offset the extra bitters and roasty notes in the coffee. Traditionally, cafe cubanos are made with a stove top moka pot for the “espresso” component, but these days, most are made with commercial (and consumer) pump driven espresso machines.
In our research, we’ve found a lot of variants on making this drink. Some add sugar directly to the portafilter (don’t do that!); some just brew an entire shot into a cup with a teaspoon of sugar (kinda blah), and some use modern espresso equipment to mimic the old way of using a stovetop moka pot, but still take the time to create “espumita” (more on that below) by hand, and mixing it with the finished coffee beverage. That’s going to be our method for this how to.
The magic of a great cafe cubano is having super sweet and rich espumita (a sugary foam) mixed into the coffee beverage. It’s not so much that the espresso itself has sugar added. We’ll get a lot more into the details, history and methods later on, but let’s get right into the How To for now – the CoffeeGeek method for making a Cafe Cubano.
For this how to, we’re going to be using a Breville Barista Pro espresso machine with a built in grinder (available in the USA from Espresso Zone ($799US)). This machine is well suited for a wide range of home espresso drinks, and it’s tall cup clearance allows for direct stirring of the sugar in your cafe cubano if you decide to go for the lazy, single cup method (which we’re not featuring here).
We’re also using an excellent blend of coffee from Social Coffee Co in Ontario, called People’s Liberation blend.
Mark has certified as a Canadian, USA, and World Barista Championship Judge in both sensory and technical fields, as well as working as an instructor in coffee and espresso training. He started CoffeeGeek in 2001.
