The first images I have of the coffee are around the Guayoyo. I remember my grandmother buying the raw coffee, roasting it at home in a cauldron, grinding it in the same mill that she used for the Cachapas (corn cakes) and then starting the preparation of the Guayoyo.
Here I share with you my grandmother Rosa's ritual to prepare Guayoyo. Remember to keep in mind the ideal relationship between coffee and water: 70gr. of freshly ground coffee for 1 lt. of water. If you want it stronger, more coffee; if you want it softer, less coffee. Easy.
• We put our pot to heat with the water, when it starts to boil we remove it from the heat.
• Add the freshly ground coffee and begin to mix for approximately 4 minutes.
(My grandmother mixed it with her "taparita pal'café").
• After the time is up, we pass all the mixture through our cloth strainer.
• Serve and enjoy.
Guayoyo is a hybrid preparation that takes the best of the Infusion and Filtration methods. Normally the drinks prepared by Infusion allow the grinding to release its components in a better way, but they tend to over-extract if they exceed the time, as happens in the French Press. Here comes the best of the Filtration method, when the ideal moment arrives we can pour the mixture through the strainer and stop the overextraction.
Another key component is the strainer's cotton cloth filter. There, components of the coffee are trapped, leaving a “cleaner” drink in the cup, less strong. In the case of French Presses, the filter is made of metal and all the grain components go directly into the drink, leaving a stronger flavored cup as a result.
There is a variant of the Guayoyo and it is the well-known Guarapito. What does it consist of? That the coffee that remains in the strainer of the Guayoyo in the morning, is given new hot water throughout the day, and in each session the result is an increasingly clear and bitter drink. Sweetened with sugar or brown sugar, no problem!
I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I did writing it.
by PARAMACONI ACOSTA