Turkish coffee

A cup of Turkish coffee served at an İstanbul terrace.

Turkish coffee (also Greek, Byzantine or Armenian Coffee) is coffee that is prepared in a specific way. It is common throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Armenia, Somaliland and Balkan countries. The method of preparation is believed to have originated in Damascus and to have become widespread during the Ottoman Empire - hence the eventual appellation 'Turkish coffee'. Coffee culture is highly developed in the Balkans region, where this kind of coffee is the dominant method of preparation. It also remains a traditional beverage in Greek, Cypriot, Armenian, Balkan and Turkish restaurants around the world.

History

Coffee has its origins in the Arabian peninsula in 1100 AD, when coffee trees were cultivated for the first time. Coffee was first roasted and boiled by Arabs making "qahwa", a beverage made from plants.

In 1475, the world's first coffee shop was opened in Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire soon after the conquest by the Turks. According to a legend the shop-owners were Greeks [1][2] [3]. That was followed by the establishment of more coffee houses in Istanbul (former Constantinople).

In about 1600, coffee entered Central Europe through the port of Venice, and in 1607, it was introduced to the New World. Soon, coffee became the world's most popular beverage, and it remains so today. Today, more than 400 billion cups are consumed each year. The largest producer of coffee is Brazil.

Name

In Turkey, it was known simply as "coffee" (kahve) until instant coffee was brought in during the 1980s. Today younger generations refer to the beverage as "Turkish coffee" (Türk kahvesi). It is also known as Armenian Coffee (Armenian: Հայկական սուրճ Haykakan surj), Greek coffee (Greek: Ελληνικός καφές) or Byzantine coffee (Greek: Βυζαντινός καφές). In Cyprus it is also known as Kypriakos kafes (Greek: Κυπριακός καφές). In Croatian communities, the most common names are turska kava (Turkish coffee), domaca kava (domestic coffee), and kava (coffee). In Serbian communities, it’s called turska kafa (Turkish coffee), srpska kafa (Serbian coffee), domaca kafa (domestic coffee), or kafa (coffee).

Equipment

The necessary equipment to prepare Turkish coffee consists of a narrow-topped small boiling pot called cezve or džezva, a teaspoon and a heating apparatus. The ingredients are finely ground coffee, cardamom, cold water and (if desired) sugar. It is served in cups (fincan or fildžan) similar in size to Italian espresso or Japanese sake cups. Some modern cups do have handles. Traditional cups did not, and coffee was drunk either by handling the cup with the tip of the fingers or, more often, by placing the cup in a zarf, a metal container with a handle.

Traditionally, the pot is made of copper and has a wooden handle. The size of the pot is chosen to be close to the total volume of the cups to be prepared, since using too large a pot causes most of the precious foam to stick to the inside of it. Also, a certain depth of water is necessary in order for the coffee particles to sink. The teaspoon is used both for stirring and measuring the amount of coffee and sugar. The teaspoons in the United States are much larger than the teaspoons in countries where Turkish coffee is common: The dipping parts of the teaspoons in these countries are about 1 cm long and 0.5 cm wide. For heating, an ordinary stove burner is sufficient, but too strong of a heat source is undesirable, as the brewing time needs to be at least five minutes.

After this general description, personal brewing preferences vary. Below is one example.

Preparation

Preparation of Turkish coffe

As with other ways of preparing coffee, the best Turkish coffee is made from freshly roasted beans ground just before brewing. A dark roast is preferable but even a medium roast coffee will yield a strong aroma and flavour. The grinding is done either by pounding in a mortar (the authentic method) or using a mill (the more usual method today), and the end result is a fine coffee powder. Beans for Turkish coffee are ground even finer than the grind used in pump-driven espresso makers; therefore, Turkish coffee should be powdery. It is the finest grind of coffee used in any style of coffee making.

For best results, the water must be cold. Therefore, if sugar is desired, an easily dissolvable form should be chosen.

The amount of water necessary can be measured using the cups. The coffee and the sugar are usually added to water, rather than being put into the pot first. For each cup between one and two heaped teaspoons of coffee are used. In Turkey, four degrees of sweetness are used. The Turkish terms and approximate amounts are as follows: sade (plain; no sugar), az şekerli (little sugar; half a levelled teaspoon of sugar), orta şekerli (medium sugar; one levelled teaspoon), and çok şekerli (a lot of sugar; one and a half or two levelled teaspoons). The coffee and the desired amount of sugar are stirred until all coffee sinks and the sugar is dissolved. Following this, the spoon is removed and the pot is put on the fire. No stirring is done beyond this point, as it would dissolve the foam. Just as the coffee begins boiling, the pot is removed from the fire and the coffee is poured into the cups.

Utensils to prepare Turkish coffee (handmade from Crete)

A well-prepared Turkish coffee has a thick foam at the top (köpük in Turkish), is homogeneous, and does not contain noticeable particles in the foam or the liquid. This can be achieved only if cold water and a low heat are used. Starting with warm water or a strong heat does not leave enough time for either the coffee to sink or the foam to form. It is possible to wait an additional twenty seconds past boiling, which makes a homogeneous and delicious coffee, but the foam is completely lost. To overcome this, foam can be removed and put into cups earlier and the rest can be left to boil. In this case special attention must be paid to transfer only the foam and not the suspended particles.

There are other schools of preparing Turkish coffee that vary from the above. One such method involves starting with hot water alone, then adding and dissolving the sugar. The product is in essence a sugar syrup, with a higher boiling point than water. The coffee and cardamom are added, and the mixture is stirred. It is then brought to a boil and just before serving is removed from the heat for a few seconds and returned to it, being brought to a brief boil a second time. This double (and sometimes triple) boiling is an essential part of the process, both ceremonially and—as connoissieurs claim—on the palate.

Drinking

All the coffee in the pot is poured into cups, but not all of it is drunk.

Turkish coffee is drunk slowly and is usually served with a glass of cold water (to freshen the mouth to better taste the coffee before sipping), though sometimes, especially after dinner, with a small glass of mint liqueur.

The thick layer of sludgy grounds at the bottom of the cup is left behind. The cup is then commonly turned over into the saucer to cool, and then the patterns of the coffee grounds can be used for a kind of fortune telling called tasseography, or tasseomancy (kafemandeia in Greek). These terms also refer to the reading of tea leaves.

Turkish coffee grounds are sometimes flavoured with cardamom, eliminating the need to have the spice added during preparation.

External links

• About Turkish Coffee at Turkishcook.com
• Turkish Coffee Tutorial at Ineedcoffee.com
• Turkish Coffee - A Historical Background
• Brewing Turkish Coffee article and discussion at Coffeegeek.com