Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Café Épicé (Comorian Spiced Coffee)
Strong Comorian coffee simmered with cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves, sweetened and served in small cups, the fragrant everyday brew of the Perfume Islands.
Comorian · easy · serves 4
prep 5 min · cook 12 min
~37 cal · 0g protein · 10g carbs · 0g fat · 0g fiber · 10g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Café épicé is the spiced coffee of the Comoros, strong coffee brewed with warm spices, most often cinnamon, , and cloves, and served sweet in small cups. The islands sit on the old Indian Ocean spice routes, and that Swahili and Arab-influenced love of fragrant spice carries straight into the daily cup.
The spices are added as the coffee brews, so the pot fills the room with scent before the first sip. It is a strong, aromatic drink rather than a milky one, taken black and sweet throughout the day and offered to guests as a matter of course.
The Comoros are also among the world's great vanilla producers, so a split pod is a natural local flourish here, but it stays a grace note; the defining character is the trio of cinnamon, , and clove. Enjoyed in homes and cafés across Moroni, café épicé is a warm, welcoming taste of island life.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
4 tbsp ground coffee
4 cups water
1 cinnamon stick
4 pods
3 whole cloves
3 tbsp sugar
1 vanilla pod, split, optional local flourish, not essential
Instructions
1
Bring the water to a boil with the cracked cardamom, cinnamon stick, and cloves so the spices open up.
✎ Chef’s note
Cracking the cardamom pods before they hit the water lets far more of their scent out than leaving them whole.
2
Stir in the coffee, and the split vanilla pod if using, and simmer gently 5 minutes to let the spices infuse.
3
Sweeten to taste and let the grounds settle for a minute off the heat.
4
Pour through a strainer into small cups and serve hot and fragrant.
Comorian Perfume Islands tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Moroni. Cooks disagree about the method: some simmer the lobster in the sauce, others split it, work the seeds in and roast it. What is not argued over is the rest of the table, coconut rice, cassava, breadfruit and reef fish over charcoal, with cloves and ylang-ylang growing on the same volcanic slopes.
🗺️
Comoros. The export list and the shopping list barely overlap. The Comoros is the world's leading producer of ylang-ylang essence and the second largest producer of vanilla after Madagascar, and cloves dominate its earnings, but rice, the everyday staple, is mostly imported. Cassava, bananas and coconut are what actually grows for the table.
🌍
Africa. Much of what reads as timeless African cooking is younger than the Atlantic crossings. Maize, cassava, groundnut, chilli and tomato all arrived from the Americas after 1500 and pushed older crops aside; millet, sorghum, teff, yam and fonio are the ones that were already here, and the map still shows the join.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Comoros
Langouste à la VanilleSpiny lobster gently cooked in a fragrant sauce of vanilla, cream, and lime, the Comoros on a plate.
Mkatra FoutraSoft coconut-scented griddle breads from the Comoros, torn and eaten with tea or curry.
MatabaPounded cassava leaves slow-cooked in coconut milk with fish, a fragrant green stew that is Comoros' national dish.
Browse all Comoros recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Comoros meal
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LaduDessert
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Drinks
Frequently asked questions
What is Café Épicé (Comorian Spiced Coffee)?
Strong Comorian coffee simmered with cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves, sweetened and served in small cups, the fragrant everyday brew of the Perfume Islands.
Where does Café Épicé (Comorian Spiced Coffee) come from?
Café Épicé (Comorian Spiced Coffee) is a Comorian dish from Moroni, Comoros.
Can Café Épicé (Comorian Spiced Coffee) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Café Épicé (Comorian Spiced Coffee) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Café Épicé (Comorian Spiced Coffee) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Café Épicé (Comorian Spiced Coffee) take to make?
About 17 minutes total (5 minutes prep, 12 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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