A chorreador is a coffee making device used in

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

in which hot water leaches through coffee grounds held in a

cloth filter A cloth filter is a simple and cost-effective appropriate technology method for reducing the contamination of drinking water, developed for use mainly in Bangladesh. Water collected in this way has a greatly reduced pathogen count. Though not a ...

mounted on a wooden stand, then drips into a container.Brew a great cup of Costa Rican coffee
Costa Rica In-Focus (zurqui.com), 2010-10-25.

Design

The chorreador consists of a wooden stand which holds an elongated cotton bolsita ( Spanish, " little bag"), shaped rather like a pocket. The mouth of the bolsita is held open by a circular wire or wooden rim that is attached to a handle. The stand is used to hold a

coffee cup A coffee cup is a cup for serving coffee and List of coffee drinks, coffee-based drinks. There are three major types: conventional cups used with saucers, mugs used without saucers, and disposable cups. Cups and mugs generally have a Handle (gri ...

or coffee pot on its base, and the bolsita is suspended from the top of the chorreador stand, hanging above the container. The chorreador can be made at home simply and cheaply with very basic

carpentry Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, Shipbuilding, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. C ...

and

sewing Sewing is the craft of fastening pieces of textiles together using a sewing needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era. Before the invention of spinning yarn or weaving fabric, archaeo ...

skills, or it can be crafted from beautiful and decorative

softwood Scots pine, a typical and well-known softwood Softwood is wood from gymnosperm trees such as conifers. The term is opposed to hardwood, which is the wood from angiosperm trees. The main differences between hardwoods and softwoods is that the sof ...

s or

hardwood Hardwood is wood from Flowering plant, angiosperm trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostl ...

s by an

artisan An artisan (from , ) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art, sculpture, clothing, food ite ...

Use

The word is related to the Spanish verb , meaning to drip or trickle, and refers to the action of hot water seeping through the coffee grounds and dripping out. A coffee cup or pot is placed on the bottom of the stand, and fine to medium-fine ground coffee is spooned into a dry . This is then suspended from the top of the stand so it hangs over the container. Boiling water is poured slowly over the coffee grounds, and the liquid seeps through, making coffee, which drips into the waiting container.Brewing Coffee ~ Chorreador de Café
Mi Chunche...en la Cocina. 2008-03-10.
''chorreador.com''. Retrieved: 2011-06-17.

Care of the bolsita

The bolsita is always washed and dried between each use, as a dry bolsita produces the best results. It is advisable for anyone who likes to make coffee often to have more than one filter. When the coffee is made, the bolsita is rinsed afterwards with water to remove the coffee grains. Soap or detergent is never used for cleaning because they would leave an aftertaste in the coffee. In time, oils from the coffee grounds, such as caffeoyl, dye the cotton bolsita; however, the taste of the brewed coffee remains unaffected. These oils can be dissolved and removed by scrubbing the bolsita with salt about once a month, followed by a thorough rinse to remove all of the salt. A properly cared-for bolsita lasts many months.

References

External links

Make your own chorreador
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chorreador Coffee preparation Costa Rican cuisine

Design

Use

Care of the bolsita

See also

References

External links