How To Make Coffee The Central American Way
Central American coffee is wonderful. It tastes great and is less acidic. But the way to prepare it is a bit different than what I’m used to.
I’ve seen the machines that cafes use to prepare coffee, where water is heated and pushed through the coffee under high pressure and the milk is steamed/foamed. I’ve seen the drip coffee machines. I’ve seen the Italian stove-top espresso machines. But the Central American system using a chorreador is a bit different, yet lovely in its own right.
Preparing Coffee The Central American Way
As you can see, the system is more or less similar to a drip coffee machine. You fill a permeable sock/filter/chorreador with the quantity of coffee desired, pour boiling water into the sock, and catch the coffee in a container.
It’s an elegantly simple set up and solution that I’ve seen in all the Central American countries I’ve visited. The only disadvantage this system has compared to a drip coffee machine is that the drip coffee machine keeps coffee hot. But when making coffee for instant consumption, I love this method of preparation. And cleanup is very simple!
I could kill for a good bit of coffee! Getting fed up with the Spanish cafe con leche that is so hit and miss depending on which cafe you go to. Perhaps all modern cafes should revert back to this method of preparing coffee!
Maybe, but you may find it interesting that it was in Madrid having a cafe con leche that actually made me start liking coffee in the first place 🙂 I’m sure you can find a chorredor in Spain if you look hard enough!