Coffee from a cuban sock

musicmaniac

New member
May 7, 2006
2
0
Visit site
OK, got your attention, but there really is such a thing as a cuban sock for making coffee, and it was some of the best I ever had.
The cuban sock is actually made like a strainer with a handle, but instead of the wire strainer there is a cotton "sock" shaped like a cone. Water is boiled in a glass carafe and the heat source turned off. The ground coffee is measured into the sock, and the sock is lowered into the water. The whole device is held in place by the rim of the strainer-type handle. The coffee is ready in just a few minutes.
I've only seen and used one of these cuban socks, and it was 20 years ago. I've not seen one like it since, although I'd like to try one again.
Is anyone familiar with this type brewing device, or do I have to make one myself?
Thanks for reading!
 

H Man

New member
Jun 21, 2006
29
0
NYC
Visit site
LOL! Your posts brought back some memories for me (I'm Cuban-American)!

Anyway, haven't seen one of those things in forever, and to be honest, don't know if they still exist. I only have the vaguest memory of it, in our home, and everyone else's that we knew, we mostly used what I think is called a Moka Pot. To me it was simply called a 'cafetera'.

IF it's still around at all, you'll only find it in a bodega or a grocery store that primarily, if not exclusively serves a Latin market...think Hialeah in FL or Washington Heights in NYC for example.
 

musicmaniac

New member
May 7, 2006
2
0
Visit site
Thanks, H! Took you long enough! Just kidding, of course - I appreciate the input. I'll see if any of the local latin markets have any clues. If not, I'll check when I'm in a larger city or maybe online for moka pot (possibly mocha?) or cafetera. One of these days, I'll be making coffee that way again - even if I have to make the pot. Cheers to you, H!
 
Sounds pretty similar to Singapore and Malaysia's Kopi Tarik. Kopi Tarik is made using a type of sock and the coffee is pulled/poured in very long pours from the sock using a standard aluminium gardening watering can. Kopi TArik literally translates as "pulled coffee". It is traditionally robusta roasted with a bit of margarine and sometimes sugar.

[/img]
 
Kopi%20Tarik2.jpg


Kopi%20TArik%201.jpg
 

equus007

New member
Apr 4, 2006
315
1
Austin, Tx
Visit site
si si

They do a similar technique in the interior of Belize using a ceramic spouted pot and fiber from banana leaves(to strain) mixed with coconut milk. Suppose to add mild mellowing effect to coffee but I never noticed a difference. I had assumed that it was done in this fashion because they always brew "cowboy coffee" and it would filter out the grinds but they did have a fairly large Thai and other SE Asian immigration about 100 yrs back. I'll do more research and ge bck with y'all.
 

BeanGrinder

New member
Aug 11, 2004
176
0
North Georgia, USA
Visit site
This looked intriguing. I dug out an old sock from the laundry room and gave it a try. I'm not sure how clean the sock was before I started, but I figured the coffee stains would hide that.

The resulting brew was strong and had a grassy taste to it. Perhaps that had to do with the fact that this sock was part of my son's soccer uniform.

All joking aside, we used a similar method in Morning Call down in New Orleans. This landmark coffee house has been in business for 165 years! The brew method was through a metal sieve that looked like a stove pipe hat, only no top on the hat. The "sock" was placed in the "hat" and tied off. The grounds were added to the sock and the whole apparatus placed on top of a pot. Next, boiling hot water was poured through the sock and the coffee allowed to drip down into the pot. This would later be poured into the serving pots for the waitstaff to use. The coffee is served "au lait" style by pouring equal amounts of coffee with heated milk. This method was in use long before the espresso machine had been invented!

-BG
 

mariaisabel

New member
May 27, 2014
1
0
Visit site
lol...i was born in cuba and have lived many places...now in perth wa and have returned to the original ways about my coffee...i haver rigged up a process rooted from the old days of the sock drip from the motherland ~ cheers!
 
In any city in the Dominican Republic where people do not have access to a gas range or electric stove that is the method of brewing that is most common. The cotten sock is sold in any small grocery in the interior of the country.The stand for it is calle a "burro" for coffee and the most common fuel used to warm up the water is vegetable charcoal which is sad as it tends to deforest the country as this is the main source of cooking fuel.For what i've heard our neighbor Haiti has only a 2% of the original forestation from when Colombus first arrived at the island which he named Hispanola and West Indies to the area in 1492 A.D.
 

Sparkster

New member
Aug 6, 2014
2
0
Visit site
Kopi-o is sold in bags of 20..the best coffee I have ever had. Kopi luwak is made from the berry eating civets poop..I have never had the nerve to drink it.
 
Top