flipCafezinho coado
Cafezinho coado
Why this dish? Coffee is inseparable from Minas Gerais and Brazil: a small sweetened coffee filtered through a cloth strainer accompanies every visit, every meeting, every meal end. For a president from a coffee-growing region, cafezinho is the ultimate gesture of hospitality.
A black, strong, sweetened coffee filtered through a cloth strainer (coador) in the traditional Brazilian way. Served in a very small cup, piping hot.
In Brazil, you don't receive anyone without offering a cafezinho — it's stronger than anything. You make it the old way, with the cloth coador: you heat the water, already add the sugar, and pour slowly over the grounds, in several stages, so all the aroma passes through. Small, black, well sweetened, boiling hot. It's the coffee that opens discussions and ends them. And believe me, in a meeting, it's often around this little cup that serious things are said.
- •Ground coffee (from Minas or São Paulo) — several spoonfuls (base)
- •Water — according to number of cups (extraction)
- •Sugar — generously (traditional sweetness)
Cafezinho coado
A black, strong, sweetened coffee filtered through a cloth strainer (coador) in the traditional Brazilian way. Served in a very small cup, piping hot.
Why this dish? Coffee is inseparable from Minas Gerais and Brazil: a small sweetened coffee filtered through a cloth strainer accompanies every visit, every meeting, every meal end. For a president from a coffee-growing region, cafezinho is the ultimate gesture of hospitality.
In Brazil, you don't receive anyone without offering a cafezinho — it's stronger than anything. You make it the old way, with the cloth coador: you heat the water, already add the sugar, and pour slowly over the grounds, in several stages, so all the aroma passes through. Small, black, well sweetened, boiling hot. It's the coffee that opens discussions and ends them. And believe me, in a meeting, it's often around this little cup that serious things are said.
Ingredients (period version)
- Ground coffee (from Minas or São Paulo) — several spoonfuls (base)
- Water — according to number of cups (extraction)
- Sugar — generously (traditional sweetness)
Ingredients
- Ground coffee (medium grind, dark roast) — 4 tablespoons (base)
- Water — 500 ml (extraction)
- Sugar — 2 to 3 tablespoons (to taste) (traditional sweetness)
Method
- Heat the water until the first simmer (without boiling hard) and dissolve the sugar in it.
- Place the ground coffee in a cloth coador (or paper filter if unavailable) set over a carafe.
- Pour the hot sweetened water slowly, in several stages, wetting all the grounds.
- Let it drip through completely, without pressing.
- Serve immediately in very small cups, piping hot.
How it was made : The coador de pano (cloth filter) is the historical Brazilian method, predating paper filters, still queen in homes. Brazil has been the world's largest coffee producer since the 19th century, and Minas Gerais is the leading state — coffee is part of national identity.
The contemporary twist : Specialty coffee shops in Belo Horizonte revisit the coador by highlighting single-origin beans from the Cerrado Mineiro, served unsweetened to reveal fruit notes.
Dilma Rousseff · Charactorium
