Café Real Decaf Cuban Ground Espresso Coffee 10oz (2 Pack)

The Blend

The same blend as regular Café Real, from the same established coffee-growing regions, taken to the same dark espresso roast, then decaffeinated. The intent is not a different coffee for the evening. It is the same one.

Arabica carries the aroma and the sweetness; Robusta carries the weight and the dense crema a colada is judged on. Decaffeination is not free, though, and the profile above says exactly where it costs: crema, aroma and acidity land where the regular blend lands, and body reads one step lighter, because removing caffeine takes a little structure with it.

The roast is held dark for that reason, to put back the weight the process takes out. Same sugar, same espuma, same small cup. For the second one, and the third.

Brewing

Cafecito. Brew in the cafetera. Put two spoons of sugar in the serving cup, and when the first dark drops come through, pour those over the sugar and whip until it turns pale and creamy. That is the espuma. Pour the rest through it and it sits on top like crema. Skip this step and you have dark coffee, not a cafecito.

Colada. The same thing in a six or nine-cup pot, poured into one cup with thimbles stacked beside it. It is not a bigger serving. It is a coffee you hand around.

Cortadito. A cafecito cut with about the same volume of hot milk. Softer, and the one that holds up next to breakfast.

Machine and drip. Ground fine for the portafilter: an 18 g dose pulling roughly 36 g in 25 to 30 seconds. It also works in a drip machine at about 10 g per 180 ml, where the dark roast gives more body than a medium roast would.