Most mochas are espresso and a sweet brown sauce. This one starts with tablea, the discs of pure ground roasted cacao sold in markets across the country and the base of tsokolate. It is bitter, coarse and unsweetened, so you decide the sugar, and what you end up with tastes of cacao rather than of confectionery.
What you need
- 18g of coffee, ground fine
- A 36g double espresso
- Two tablea discs, roughly 20g
- 200ml of milk
- 5–10g of muscovado, to taste
- A 300ml cup
The method
- Warm 50ml of the milk in a small pan, add the tablea, and whisk until the discs have melted completely. This takes two or three minutes and it will not be hurried.
- Whisk in the muscovado, then take the pan off the heat.
- Pour the chocolate into the cup and pull the double shot straight onto it.
- Stir once.
- Texture the remaining 150ml of milk to 60°C and pour it in.
On tablea
Tablea is unsweetened and coarse, and it needs both heat and a whisk to come together. Rush it and the grit settles at the bottom of the cup. Buy it from a market or from a producer rather than a supermarket where you can — it is fresher, and it is usually clear which province it came from.
Sweetening it
Muscovado suits this better than white sugar. It brings a molasses note of its own that meets the cacao halfway. Start at 5g. A mocha needing more than 10g is usually one where the tablea was underworked.
Which coffee
You need a coffee that will not vanish behind cacao. Apo Sandawa is fruit-forward and already carries chocolate and nuts of its own; the orange and cherry stay visible through the milk, and the two chocolates read as one.