How to Prepare Your CoffeeCola de Mono
What you need
Ingredients run from the top of the cup to the bottom; the last item is the bottom layer. Values are normalized to a true 100% stack.
- Grind
- None needed — most Chilean recipes dissolve instant coffee in the hot milk; a cup of strong brewed coffee works too
- Water temperature
- Served cold — the milk is heated with the spices, then chilled for several hours
- Total time
- 240 min
Cola de mono is Chile's Christmas coffee: milk simmered with sugar, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, darkened with coffee, laced with aguardiente and served ice-cold beside a slice of pan de Pascua. Families make it by the litre in December and keep it bottled in the fridge through New Year. Its odd name — literally "monkey's tail" — has several competing explanations. The best known says a party ran out of liquor while hiding President Montt's Colt revolver to keep him from leaving, and the improvised "Colt de Montt" slurred into colemono. Others point to the long-tailed monkey on Spanish Anís del Mono bottles, or simply to the drink's brown colour. The build itself is simple: milk heated with the spices, then chilled, with the aguardiente usually stirred in once it has cooled.
Steps
Heat the milk with the sugar and spices
Whole cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg give up their aroma to hot milk far faster than to cold, and the heat dissolves the sugar completely. Bring it just to the boil, then take it off the heat — a long hard boil scorches milk and can make it catch on the pot.
Stir in the coffee while the milk is still hot
Instant coffee dissolves instantly in hot milk but clumps in cold. Adding it now also lets it steep alongside the spices, turning the milk the caramel-brown colour the drink is named for in one of its stories.
Let it cool completely before adding the aguardiente
Spirit poured into hot milk loses part of its alcohol and aroma as vapour. Adding it once the milk is cool keeps the aguardiente's strength and fruit intact — the order several Chilean recipes follow.
Strain, bottle and chill for several hours
Straining removes the cinnamon sticks, cloves and any skin from the milk. A few hours in the fridge — overnight is common — lets the flavours settle together, and the drink is meant to be poured very cold.
Cup ready
Time to enjoy your Cola de Mono
Brewed the way they do it in Chile. What next?
Tips
- Make it a day ahead — the rest in the fridge rounds out the spice, and it keeps through the holidays in a closed bottle.
- Add a strip of orange peel with the spices — several Chilean recipes do, and it lifts the cinnamon without changing the drink's character.
- Some Chilean recipes add two egg yolks, beaten with a splash of the aguardiente and stirred in once the milk is off the heat, for a richer, eggnog-like body.
- For a version children can drink, leave out the aguardiente — it is a common Christmas-table alternative, though the traditional cola de mono carries the spirit.
Common mistakes
- Pouring the aguardiente into hot milk — the alcohol and its aroma flash off, and the drink ends up flat and less spirited than intended.
- Boiling the milk hard with the spices — it scorches on the bottom and the burnt note carries into every glass.
- Serving it lukewarm — cola de mono is a cold drink for the Southern Hemisphere's summer Christmas; it should come straight from the fridge.
FAQ
Why is it called cola de mono?
Nobody knows for certain, and Chilean writers have recorded several explanations. The most popular says guests at a gathering hid President Montt's Colt revolver to keep him at the party, then mixed coffee with milk, aguardiente and sugar when the liquor ran out — a "Colt de Montt" that became colemono. Accounts disagree on whether it was Manuel Montt or his son Pedro Montt; most name Pedro. Another story says it was sold in Spanish Anís del Mono bottles, whose label shows a long-tailed monkey, and Manuel Antonio Román's early dictionary of Chileanisms simply links the name to its dark brown colour.
What is aguardiente, and can I use pisco?
Chilean aguardiente is a clear spirit distilled from grape pomace, the skins and pulp left after winemaking. Many published recipes accept pisco, Chile's other grape spirit, in its place.
When is cola de mono drunk?
It belongs to Christmas and New Year in Chile, served cold with pan de Pascua, the country's Christmas fruit bread.
The Atlas
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