Mexican Mocha
A mocha made with stone-ground Mexican chocolate, so it tastes of cinnamon and has a faint, pleasant graininess, with a pinch of chilli that warms the back of your throat. The heat should be noticed, not felt.
At a glance
- Espresso : milk
- 1:5
- Active time
- 5 min
- Total time
- 7 min
- Makes
- 1 large cup
- Serve
- Hot
- Kit
- Espresso machine
Ingredients
Note: No Mexican chocolate? Use 20 g of 70 percent dark chocolate, a teaspoon of sugar and a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon.
Method
-
Chocolate and chilli in the cup
Put the chopped Mexican chocolate and the chilli in the bottom of the cup.
-
Espresso on top, stir to melt
Pull the double espresso straight onto the chocolate and stir for thirty seconds until it has melted.
Mexican chocolate is gritty with sugar and will never melt completely smooth. That texture is part of it.
Stir 30 seconds -
Pour and dust
Pour the milk into the chocolate espresso and dust with cinnamon. Taste for heat. If you did not notice it at all, add a little more chilli next time.
Why this works
Mexican chocolate is made differently from European chocolate. The cacao is ground with sugar and usually cinnamon, traditionally on a stone metate, and it is not conched for hours to make it smooth. The sugar crystals stay coarse, which is why it is slightly gritty, and the cinnamon is built in. It was made to be whisked into hot milk or water, not eaten as a bar. Melted into espresso, it gives a mocha that tastes of spice and sweetness without any syrup.
The chilli is the interesting part. Capsaicin does not taste hot; it activates the TRPV1 receptor, the same one that responds to real heat. That is why a pinch of chilli makes a hot drink feel warmer than it is. Fat and casein in the milk dissolve and bind capsaicin, which is why milk calms a chilli burn, and why the same pinch that would be fierce in black coffee is gentle in a mocha.
The dose is small. A pinch, an eighth of a teaspoon at most, is enough to be noticed at the back of the throat after you swallow. More and it becomes the main flavour. Ancho chilli gives a fruity, smoky warmth; cayenne a cleaner, sharper heat.
Cacao, chilli and spice have been drunk together in Mesoamerica for millennia, and the Aztecs drank cacao with chilli long before sugar or milk reached the Americas. The Mexican mocha is a café invention that borrows that pairing and puts it on top of an espresso.
Variations
- Iced: melt the chocolate into the espresso, cool, then pour over ice with cold milk.
- With cinnamon syrup: replace the dusting with 10 ml cinnamon syrup in the cup.
- Without chilli: just the cinnamon chocolate, which is closer to a plain mocha.
- Café de olla mocha: use café de olla in place of the espresso, with the chocolate dissolved in.
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Questions
What is a Mexican mocha?
A mocha made with cinnamon-scented Mexican chocolate, espresso, steamed milk and a pinch of chilli.
What chilli goes in a Mexican mocha?
A small pinch of cayenne for clean heat, or ancho chilli for a fruitier, smoky warmth.
Why is Mexican chocolate gritty?
It is ground with coarse sugar and not refined for hours like European chocolate. The slight grit is normal and part of its character.
Can I make a Mexican mocha without Mexican chocolate?
Yes. Use dark chocolate with a teaspoon of sugar and a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon.