03/11/2026
Every Muhibbah Dinner we surprise our guests with a welcome beverage that is thoughtfully created by ’s Beverage Director, Sam Pritchard (). Here’s a little bit more context on the featured drink at our most recent Muhibbah Dinner:
“As we have all endeavored to stay cozy through this long, brutal, and emotionally heavy winter, I found myself warmed by a new, and comforting friend - Café de Olla.
My hands first wrapped around café de olla in in the Italian Market with my fiancé, Jackie. She said she had just found her favorite new coffee shop while leading a . As we left Café Duskaia, I too was happy to have found in my hands a cup of coffee that wafted with smells of warming spice and orange, but also the story of a group of sisters sustainably farming coffee in Nicaragua simply to be shared with the community of Philadelphia by one of its many important immigrant owned businesses.
It was the next day when our Kitchen Manager José Jimenez welcomed me into our pop-up at with, of all things, a steaming mug of cafè de olla. It was then and there that the wheels began turning…
For Muhibbah Dinner, we wanted to highlight the comfort of café de olla in our welcoming cocktail.
We started with coffee chaff (the dry, papery skin or husk that sheds from coffee beans during the roasting process) donated by our friend, Ben Pierce. Using the coffee chaff, piloncillo (an unrefined whole cane sugar used in café de olla), cinnamon, cardamom, smoked clove, and Malaysian salt cured mandarin, we made a cordial. To this we added mezcal, gin, sweet vermouth, cyan, and chocolate bitters. We rounded the cocktail out by including orange oils and salt in the preparation.
Just one of the many beautiful things that comes from embracing the muhibbah around you. Stay thirsty, and make sure to come to our next Muhibbah Dinner series!”
-Sam
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