Making the Perfect Mocha

Mocha is a word that has many meanings, especially in the coffee world. Mocha is the port in Yemen where the coffee trade was carried out early on in coffee history. Yemen coffee is often described as acidic, with hints of cinnamon and raisins and nearly always leaves you with a distinctive chocolatey aftertaste. A mocha pot is traditionally a stovetop coffee maker that passes water through ground coffee. We believe coffee and chocolatey beverages have been around for at least 200 years, served in European coffee houses.

By creating a wonderful creamy hot chocolate, using only beautifully textured milk then adding the perfectly extracted espresso to it, you have a delicious mocha. It really is that easy! Next time when you want a little treat at home, you heat a little milk, make a warming hot chocolate and add your espresso. Top it off with whipped cream and marshmallows and make it an event.

The Caffè Mocha story

The Port of Al Moka in Yemen was one of the first centers of coffee trading around the 17 th Century, however, with the opening of the Suez Canal the trade moved elsewhere.

As with so many coffees, the mocha owes its popularity to Italian coffee houses, producing a creamy chocolatey beverage since the 1800s. First appearing in the Piedmont region of Italy, the bicerin, meaning ‘small cup’ in local dialect, the drink was made from hot milk, chocolate and espresso. However, don’t think it resembles the mochas of today as the Italian chocolate often made with corn starch is an incredibly thick chocolate paste rather than liquid. The mocha, like the latte, was popularized in Seattle in the early 1980s. This description did not appear in coffee houses until as recently as 1996/97.

A very popular coffee for those with a sweet tooth.