Recipe: Café con Leche Pops

You can’t talk about breakfast in Cuba without talking about coffee, a truth that still holds strong when you talk about breakfast in Miami. Be it cafecito or café con leche or any of the coffee drinks that fall in between, coffee is an important part of the morning meal, with café con leche, a drink of sweetened espresso and lots of steamed milk, being the most popular choice as the first drink of the day. With its milky sweetness, café con leche can even feel like dessert, so why not take it all the way there, turning the drink into an ice pop for a cooler take on your morning buzz?

These pops require a good, strong batch of coffee so track down a can of Pilon or reach for the Café Bustelo you have stashed in the cabinet. Both of these brands are espresso roast; they come with a pronounced flavor that can veer into bitterness, which is why they take so well to tempering with milk and sugar. For our ice pops, we’re using both evaporated milk, which carries a cooked milk sweetness of its own distinction, and condensed milk, which is viscous and intensely sweet. Both help to mellow out the coffee while ensuring the pops freeze into a dense, almost fudgy treat.

These little powerhouses are made in small dixie cups. It’s not quite like the large cups you see café con leche served in, but think about it — when the pops are this small, nothing’s stopping you from seconds.