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Aromatic Turkish Coffee
Turkish coffee is enjoyed by boiling finely powdered roast coffee beans in a pot called cezve with sugar, and served into a cup where the dregs settle. The name describes the method of preparation as there is no special Turkish variety of the coffee bean. It is common throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Caucasus, and the Balkans and loved by expatriate communities in the world.
Making Turkish Coffee : Turkish coffee is a method of preparation and not a kind of coffee. Thus there is no special type of bean for the Turkish coffee. But care is taken to grind or pound the beans to a powder as finely as possible. The grinding is done either by pounding in a mortar or using a burr mill. The traditional Turkish hand grinder does an exceptional job. The best Turkish coffee gets 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 flavor.
Equipment and Ingredients : The necessary equipment to prepare Turkish coffee requires a narrow-topped small boiling pot called an ibrik and a heating apparatus. The ingredients are finely ground coffee, sometimes cardamom, cold water and if desired sugar. It is served in small cups called fincan that have no handles.
Methodology : Water is 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. The coffee and the desired amount of sugar are stirred until all coffee sinks and the sugar is dissolved. Then 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.
Turkish Coffee Trivia : To sweeten coffee with sugar is a relatively new usage as Turkish coffee is had without any sugar. The grounds left after drinking Turkish coffee can also be used for fortune-telling. The cup is 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. |
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