![]() ![]() Northgate Gonzalez Markets: 40 locations including Compton, Macarthur Park and West Covina.Vallarta Supermarkets: 51 locations including Anaheim, Pasadena and Downey.Horchateria Rio Luna: 15729 Downey Ave, Paramount.Mama Licha's Kitchen: 13867 Foothill Blvd, Sylmar.It's too easy to fall into a bottomless pit of caffeine consumption.Ģ315 W. It is prepared in a clay pot by boiling cinnamon sticks, piloncillo, spices and ground coffee." The spices include clavo (clove), which shines in each sip and hammers home the flatness of diner coffee without actually succumbing to it. The coffee is made, according to a server, "exactly like it's been made for a hundred years in Mexico. Café de Olla seems like it's never not busy and the staff appears to defy the law that says nothing can exist in a state of perpetual motion. Diner-style coffee is dispensed from a pourover decanter by an overworked server who'll keep it coming as long as you keep drinking. ![]() Fortunately, this trendy Burbank restaurant does. Secret recipes aside, here's where you can find great café de olla in Los Angeles.Ī post shared by Cafe De Olla Restaurant de OllaĪ place named Café de Olla better make a good one. Whatever your preference, there's a chance you'll find it in one of the Mexican restaurants, markets or strip malls of El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles. My father will only have café de olla if it comes with a toasted and buttered slice of bolillo. Others might throw in a splash of mezcal (how have more bars not caught onto this?). Some people add vanilla or a drop of honey. I take mine with a bit of milk or creamer. Once you get your café de olla, you can tweak it to suit your preferences. Supermarket chains, like Vallarta and Northgate, mass produce it daily. It's the sort of coffee you'd get in the '90s, before every strip mall had a Starbucks, and you'd suck it down as you took drags on your Newport while arguing about whether or not Tupac was dead (he's not, damn it).Ĭafé de olla exists on a spectrum, not just of sweetness like Mama Licha's classic take, but also in how it's prepared. Made with rich Oaxacan coffee and cinnamon sticks, it has no piloncillo or sweet spices. The café de olla at Café Oaxaca in Green Meadows, on the other hand, is much harsher and heavy on the cafeen. Or maybe you're a longshoreman who needs an extra kick as you work the Long Beach docks leading up to the Christmas season. Pan Y Leche in Wilmington roasts theirs with cinnamon, piloncillo and extra sugar, resulting in an extremely sweet drink that's perfect if you're a soldier who wants a rush before the Battle of Ciudad Juárez. ![]() They add their own small touches here and there," he says. When Tovar was preparing, nearly a decade ago, to put café de olla on his menu, he made sure to taste the versions prepared by his competitors. "We have it now," I assure my friend's aunt. In years past, good café de olla was hard to find in Los Angeles. It's the smell of sugar and ground beans, bubbling together in a pot while La Sonora Dinamita bumps through your friend's mom's bluetooth speakers.Ī confident voice comes through the phone, all the way from Jalisco: "Make sure you don't add the coffee until the very end," she says, "after it's all boiled with cinnamon and everything." She is concerned. It's the warmth emanating from an overused clay pot. It's grandma's hands breaking up sticks of cinnamon. Brewed with cinnamon and raw sugar, it's a ritual that feeds the body and fortifies the soul. It's maddening but finding sublime café de olla is worth it.Ĭafé de olla is more than coffee. I'm standing in a busy kitchen at a friend's house in Huntington Park talking on a borrowed iPhone as I try to scribble fast enough to record a secret family recipe for what I'm assured is the "best café de olla in the world." There are tias and tios everywhere, moms and grandmas running in and out of the cocina, and a majestic blue and yellow macaw holding down the back porch. ![]()
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