Café de olla and Champurrado are two recipes that are odes to a few of my favorite things that grow in the state of Veracruz—coffee, chocolate, vanilla, allspice, cinnamon, cardamom, and mandarin. Sometimes all on the same farm.
The first time I visited a coffee farm in Veracruz, I was taken aback because it looked like a jungle growing on theside of a mountain. In many of these farms complementary crops are planted adjacent to the cash crop to fight disease, attract beneficial insects, and to attract and repopulate honeybees. The crops create a biosphere where literally all of my favorite things grow—like Geisha coffee beans normally grown in Africa but also in Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Veracruz. The Veracruz variety, because of higher mountain altitudes and cooler temperatures, has a stronger fruit and berry flavor with a higher acidity that I love.
I met a coffee roaster in Querétaro in 2019 who turned me on to this coffee and who later introduced me to the farmer who gave me a tour of his farm when I visited the state in early 2020. It’s what I used to make café de olla—sweet, spiced coffee cut with farm-fresh whole milk.
A little gift for 2026!
To say Happy Holidays, I’m offering 20% off a full year of Sazón, valid through the end of the year.
People who support Sazón get all the recipes in this post, plus everything I’ll be cooking and writing in the year ahead.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Sazón to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.