Café Avellaneda Juanito

Coffee Mexico City

Cafe Avellaneda serves some of Mexico's most ambitious coffee cocktails.

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s famed Blue House was teeming with tourists on a Sunday afternoon in Coyoacán. On a side street just a few blocks away from Museo Frida Kahlo – the famed couple’s former home – Café Avellaneda is a far more low-key destination with a surprisingly ambitious coffee program.

Juan Carlos de la Torre opened his tiny, six-seat, rust-colored coffee bar under a blue awning in 2010. The charming hole-in-the-wall houses a two-group La Marzocco espresso machine for standard drinks and crafts several coffee cocktails.

I was impressed with Juanito (45 pesos ~ $2.50), an equal mix of espresso and a sweet tart mix of tamarind, lemon, and sugar. The drink also incorporated euebro (juniper) and slightly bitter, carbonated tonic water, served in an Old Fashioned glass with a lemon twist over ice. Stir to fully integrate the muddy but flavorful liquid at the base of the glass.

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Joshua Lurie

Joshua Lurie founded FoodGPS in 2005. Read about him here.

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