Turkish coffee

Turkish coffee, a coffee prepared with a specific method, which I describe below, known for over 500 years. It’s not that popular and is a bit harder and more time consuming than making a regular coffee, but has an intense and original taste.

Before we get to making Turkish coffee, let’s go back in time. First notes describing Turkish coffee come from 15th century from Yemen (by the way, coffee travelling to Yemen was sent through harbor named Mokka, coming from the name of coffee). Over the next few hundred years, coffee spread across the whole Ottoman Empire: Cairo, Mecca, Damascus nad Constantinople. First cafes started to appear and the black drink gained many admirers. The name „Turkish coffee” isn’t popular in Turkey, Turks usually refer to it as „coffee”. If you ever visit Turkey, then ordering coffee will most likely result in getting this coffee.

And how is this coffee made? First of all, it’s a boiled coffee. Most of you probably use coffee machines. Some of you maybe use alternative brewing methods, e.g. dripper or AeroPress (you can read more about it here). You boil it in a small pot – called cezve. It has to be very finely ground, even more finely than for espresso machine. The beans must be ground to a very fine powder. Most of house grinders can’t grind them that finely, that’s why it’s better to ask a shop or coffee roastery to do it for you.

Cezve should be half filled with water, then you pot coffee in – traditionally 1 spoon for 1 cup. The drink will be strong and aromatic. You can also add (depends on personal preferences) sugar, some spices, like cinnamon or cardamon. Next you have to mix everything together (this is the only moment, that you can mix it, you shouldn’t mix it later) and put cezve on small heat. Turkish coffee should be heated slowly, until you can see foam forming on it’s surface. Stopping the heating too early results in lack of the foam, which is important for the taste. Heating it for too long results in the foam falling down and the coffee being too bitter.

Turks treat coffee like English treat tea (it’s a steretypical comparsion, but it only shows how seriously they treat coffee). They drink coffee when they meet with friends, on buisness meetings and during social rituals. Not that long ago, a fresh married wife could let her in-law parents know, what she thinks of their arranged marriage by making a coffee in a certain way. If the coffee was sweet – she was very pleased, if it was bitter – she was discouraged. Serving a coffee with salt meant insult and objection. French diplomat from the end of 18th and beginning of 19th century, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand said that coffee should be: “black as the devil, hot as hell and swee as love”.

  • International Coffee Day 2023

    Already on Saturday, October 1st, the entire coffee industry will celebrate International Coffee Day, established on this day by 49 countries affiliated with the International Coffee Organization (ICO). As always, at Single Origin, you can expect many delights on this occasion! Poland, as a member of the European Union, also belongs to the ICO (which includes 49 countries, including the entire European Union). Nevertheless, in Polish media, we can still see that Coffee Day is on September 29th – it’s…

  • Home Coffee Roasting – how to roast coffee at home?

    I have previously written about green coffee in the context of its alleged weight-loss properties and my opinion on the matter. As you know, I have been and still am a staunch opponent of attributing any health benefits to raw coffee beans that roasted coffee does not possess. Therefore, we have not offered you raw coffee in Single Origin until now. In recent times, home roasting has become increasingly popular – the art of roasting coffee in the comfort of…

  • Ethiopia – the homeland of coffee

    I don’t think that most of europeans know much about Ethiopia. It’s commonly known that it’s an African country, it’s probably hot and poor. However, it’s worth noting, that our thoughts during morning coffee, can turn to this African country. Ethiopia is not only one of the largest coffee producers in the world, but it’s also the place where coffee originated from. All of our coffee knowledge starts from the legend of goatherd Kaldi, who supposedly lived in the 9th…

  • French press

    French press, also known as press pot or coffee press, is one of the simplest devices for home coffee making. If you use high quality, fresh roasted and ground just before brewing coffee beans, you will gain the highest quality black coffee, which you won’t have to be ashamed of, even in front of elegant guests. In my previous articles I wrote about making coffee with classic devices like Bialetti percolator, Chemex, or Aeropress (which is known for roughly 10…

  • Espresso, cappuccino, latte, americano… What differs coffee from coffee?

    Espresso, cappuccino, latte, americano… Surely most of you know which coffee to choose for yourself. But what are the differences between other coffees? Espresso – everyone knows. Latte has a higher amount of heated (but not frothed) milk than cappuccino. Americano is a ,,big black coffee”. But what to choose when you can see coffees like flat white, Romano or Marochino listed in the menu? Gamble and pick randomly or just take cappuccino that you know very well? This short…

  • The Italian job – a few words about espresso

    In my previous article I wrote about different coffees, most based on espresso. This time I would like to focus only on espresso as it’s the most important factor, which affects the final result of cappuccino, latte or any other espresso based coffee. Espresso should have 25 ml volume. It’s served in a heated porcelain cup of 70 ml volume. There is a dense nutty-brown foam at the top, the foam gives the coffee a sweet taste. Middle part of…

  • Where does coffee come from?

    Where does coffee come from? The answe for this question seems easy: from the shop, cafe, roastery… But have you ever wondered where is the beginning? How does coffee look in its natural development stage? If you ever wondered about these question while drinking your coffee, this article is for you. Coffee is cultivated for over 1000 years. The homeland of coffee is Ethiopia. According to a legend, goatherd Kaldi discovered coffee trees. One day he noticed that his goats…

Exit mobile version