Imagine the old days in Havana. Old men dressed in white linen playing
dominos and sipping some of the finest espresso in the world, while
cigar smoke and guitar music linger in the air. When one round of espresso is finished, women in beautifully woven dresses gladly deliver more. Relive these Cuban glory days in your own home with your do-it-yourself Cuban espresso coffee recipes. Cuban cigars may be illegal in the United States, but great coffee made from these Cuban espresso coffee recipes definitely isn’t. It isn’t even difficult to make.

The first of the Cuban espresso coffee recipes involves making the beverage on your stovetop.

  • Start with one ounce of good water per serving and heat it over a low flame in a small pot.
  • Add one rounded tablespoonful of coffee per ounce of water when the water boils.
  • Stir briefly. It’s finished when it boils again. The tricky part comes now at the end.
  • Filter the espresso by using a Cuban flannel strainer, which you can find at Cuban or exotic markets. Your typical paper coffee filter, on the other hand, won’t work. They will clog up instead.

The other type of Cuban espresso coffee recipes utilizes the aluminum stove-top espresso makers. They sort of look like steel tea kettles and are available at Latin, European, or specialty markets and coffee shops.

  • To make the espresso in one of these pressurized contraptions, add water to it up to the brass safety valve in the bottom chamber.
  • Place the filter basket, or funnel piece, in the bottom chamber.
  • Add enough ground to coffee to make it level to the brim, if not rounded in the center.
  • Seal the upper chamber with the lower chamber. Then heat over low to medium heat.
  • It’s done when you the coffee starts to make bubbling sounds in the top chamber. Take the coffee maker off the stove.

Whatever Cuban espresso coffee recipes you use, try adding a big teaspoon of sugar to your serving. Or boil milk for a moment and add it for café con leche. Anyway you have your Cuban espresso, it’s as close to Cuba as you can get without breaking the embargo!