What makes it Mexican?

Posted on April 13th, 2018

Living in Portland one lives the coffee life. From the morning cup of Joe to the evening digestif living here definitely gives one appreciation for caffeine; and there is no shortage of coffee shops, since you can literally find one in every other corner of the city. Needless to say I drink my fare share of the dark, liquid gold. I, just like many of my fellow Portlanders, have my favorite spots to acquire my daily fix. I'm a creature of habit so regardless of where I go I typically order the same drink. That changed after one simple sister date. 

Ariana (my sister) showed up at my place with a hot drink in her hand. After some basic chit-chat she handed the cup to me. "here, try this" she said. I took the cup from her hand and sipped. 

"Guess what the drink is" she asked. 

"I don't know... a latte?" I responded. 

"No! it's a Mexican mocha" she said in a sarcastic tone.

"What makes it Mexican?" I asked 

"Cinnamon!" she answered with an almost offended tone. 

Seriously? the thing that made this regular old mocha "Mexican" was cinnamon? I will admit I got a bit offended because in my mind I thought "do only Mexican people use this spice or what?" I was curious to find out if this was the case for other coffee shops and their version of "Mexican" anything. To my surprise the majority of places that claimed to have "Mexican" anything did in fact admit that the one thing that made it Mexican was cinnamon. 

Wow, I could not believe it. This was like saying that anything with tomato is Italian or anything with rice was Asian. I would not stand for it. Mexican beverages are made up of far more than cinnamon. What makes them special and unique are more than the ingredients, it's the cooking process and the pride that comes from making them from scratch. This is where the idea to look more into traditional Mexican drinks came into play. 

Originally the plan was to open up a bakery just like my Mami Agapita, but after this discovery I knew it had to be more than that. Bread itself would not be enough it needed to be paired with warm delicious drinks. 

Hence I've taken it up on myself to educate the locals about true "Mexican" beverages. The goal being that if someone went into my establishment and asked "what makes it Mexican?" I could give them a brief history and explanation of each particular drink and not just respond with cinnamon.