Coffee with lemon – anyone else a fan of mazagran? 🙂
I recently did research on this beverage for an Instagram post, and now I am a big fan. Described as “the original iced coffee” by some historians, mazagran “is believed to have originated from a fortress named Mazagran in the coastal town of Mostaganem in northwest Algeria.”
According to journalist Adeline Hocine, “The French invasion of Algeria began in the 1830s when they seized control of the Ottoman Empire. In the latter half of the decade, Sufi Emir Abd al-Qadir, an Algerian revolutionary, led a resistance against French troops. In 1837, Abd al-Qadir negotiated a treaty with French General Bugeaud known as the Treaty of Tafna, but once he had secured power within the country’s interior, he began to fight for freedom of colonial invasion along the coast as well.
Just three years after the treaty had been signed, Algerians outnumbered and captured over 100 French soldiers at the outpost of Mazagran, a town and commune located along the coast of Algeria (…) While confined within those walls, their limited access to resources prevented them from cutting their coffee with brandy as they normally would, so as a cost-effective solution, they were given beakers of cold water to use instead. This cold coffee beverage became known as mazagran, named after the town in which it was conceived.” As Hocine adds further, today, mazagran is less common in Algeria and France, and the truest version to the original can actually be found in Portugal, where mazagran “is typically made with a twist of lemon and at times involves the inclusion of rum.”
The recipe is straightforward and involves mixing iced coffee with freshly squeezed lemon juice and sugar to taste. I tried mazagran, and I was excited to explore its incredible depth of zesty lemon flavor. To me, in this combination, the lemon flavor was more invigorating than the coffee flavor itself, and the two blended together seamlessly – a beautiful and surprising discovery. Who’s joining me for a cup, sitting down or on-the-go? 🙂
What’s your favorite beverage with lemon or lime? Let me know in the comments 🙂
Mazagran (recipe credit: Adeline Hocine)
Ingredients
- 1 cup black coffee
- Ice
- Freshly squeezed lemon juice, to taste
- Preferred sweetener, such as cinnamon, sugar, or vanilla
- 1 lemon wedge (optional)
Instructions
- Fill a glass with ice.
- Brew one cup of black coffee through your preferred method.
- Once prepared, pour the coffee over the ice.
- Add freshly squeezed lemon juice and sweetener to taste, and mix.
- Optional: Garnish the glass with a whole slice of lemon.
- Enjoy!
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