08/06/2026
In Rio Tuerto, the air is nectarous, incensed with fermenting cane juice. The motor of the trapiche (sugar mill) chugs, and burros clomp down from the hills with bundles of sugar cane festooned to their ribs. This is where Jose Luis Carrera has been distilling aguardiente all his adult life. Carrera also grows coffee. In this region, some of the most sought-after coffee in the republic is grown; the vertiginous landscape surrounding Huautla de Jiménez offers altitude variations favorable for growing specialty coffee. Men unload the cane from the burros, then feed it into the trapiche. Fresh-pressed cane juice is channeled to fermentation tanks for rum, or boiled down separately into panela.
Later, around the Carrera family table, we share a mug of panela-sweetened coffee and take in Jose Luis’s tales of his persistence to keep his art form — his rum — alive at all costs. His tenacity is the inspiration behind the “café de olla” coffee liqueur.
The coffee liqueur had to do more than taste good; it had to showcase 100% Mexican ingredients and support other small growers. Cinnamon is sourced from two regions in Oaxaca; layering different cinnamons into the rum creates a fuller, more complex flavor. Chile huacle, the famous black chile that colors Oaxacan mole negro, is cultivated in the Cuicatlán Valley and is sourced directly from Del Chilar, a small-hold farmer. The chile’s deep, roasty flavor is the ideal companion for the coffee. Intrigued by tales of the world’s most special vanilla from the Chinantla, we went to the source. Each bottle of café de olla liqueur contains vanilla from the Akih Vanilla project. Vainilla de la Chinantla is a cooperative that has been defending and preserving vanilla biodiversity in the region for more than twenty years, reclaiming it for its original stewards, the Chinantec people.
The Paranubes ‘Café de Olla’ coffee liqueur is so much bigger than the liquid in the bottle.
May you be transported to Oaxaca with each sip. ¡Salud! ☕️✨
