Turkish coffee is the oldest brewing method still in everyday use, and the simplest. Coffee, water, a small pot. Nothing is filtered out, so the grounds settle in the bottom of the cup and the drink has a body no other method produces.
What you need
- A cezve, the small long handled pot. Copper heats fastest and most evenly.
- Coffee ground to a powder, finer than espresso, like icing sugar.
- Cold water and a demitasse cup to measure with.
The grind is not negotiable. A normal grinder will not go fine enough. Buy it ready ground for Turkish, or use a machine built for it.
How to make Turkish coffee, step by step
1. Measure with the cup
Fill the cup you will drink from with cold water and tip it into the cezve. One cup of water per serve. Add one heaped teaspoon of coffee per cup, and sugar now if you want it, because you cannot stir it in later without killing the foam.
2. Stir once, cold
Stir until the coffee is wet and the sugar dissolved. Then stop. Once it is on the heat, do not stir again.
3. Low heat, slowly
Lowest flame you have. It should take three to four minutes. Rushing gives you hot bitter liquid with no foam, and the foam is the point.
4. Catch it before it boils
A dark ring of foam builds at the edges and creeps inward. When it rises toward the rim, take the pot off the heat immediately. Never let it boil. Boiling collapses the foam and cannot be undone.
Traditionally you spoon a little foam into each cup, return the pot to the heat until it rises a second time, then pour the rest slowly down the side.
5. Let it settle
Wait a minute for the grounds to sink. Drink from the top and stop before the sludge.
Common mistakes
Boiling it. The single most common one. Off the heat as it rises, every time.
Grind too coarse. Grounds float and the cup is gritty rather than smooth.
Stirring on the heat. Breaks the foam as it forms.
Sugar added late. Add it at the start with the cold water or drink it plain.
Turkish, Greek and Arabic
These three arguments have been running for centuries, so briefly. Turkish and Greek coffee are essentially the same drink and the same method, with the name depending on which side of the Aegean you are standing on. Arabic coffee, or qahwa, is a different animal: lighter roasted, often flavoured with cardamom and saffron, brewed in a dallah and served much weaker.
All three predate every machine in your kitchen. Coffee was drunk this way in Yemen and Turkey for centuries before Europe worked out how to put it under pressure.
Sweetness is chosen up front
Turkish coffee is ordered by sweetness, not by size, and it is decided before brewing because you cannot stir sugar in later without destroying the foam.
- Sade, no sugar.
- Az sekerli, half a teaspoon per cup.
- Orta, one teaspoon, the most common.
- Sekerli, two teaspoons.
How it is served
A glass of cold water comes with it, drunk first to clear the palate. Something sweet sits alongside, usually Turkish delight, to offset the intensity.
The cup is small and you sip it slowly. It is not a drink you take away in a keep cup. In Turkey the phrase is that a cup of coffee is remembered for forty years, and the drink is built around sitting down with someone.
Reading the grounds
When the cup is empty, the saucer goes on top, the whole thing is turned over and left to cool, and the shapes left in the grounds are read as fortunes. Take it as seriously as you like. It is part of why the method survives when faster ones exist.
Cleaning the cezve
Rinse with hot water while it is still warm, before the residue sets. Copper pots are usually tin lined inside; scouring pads strip that lining, so use a soft cloth. If the outside dulls, a little lemon and salt brings copper back.
Doing it without the pot
Automatic Turkish coffee machines handle the heat curve for you and stop before the boil, which removes the one step everyone gets wrong. We stock the Arzum OKKA range, including a dallah maker for Arabic style.
For the coffee, Bravo grinds a proper Turkish and a Greek, both in the bean range.
The bean for it
Turkish coffee needs a bean ground finer than espresso. This is the one we grind for it.
Common questions
Do you drink the grounds in Turkish coffee?
No. Let the cup settle for a minute so the grounds sink, then drink from the top and stop before the sludge at the bottom.
Is Greek coffee the same as Turkish coffee?
Essentially yes. Same powder grind, same pot and same method, with the name depending on which side of the Aegean you are on. Arabic coffee is a different drink: lighter roasted, often spiced and served weaker.
How much coffee do you use for Turkish coffee?
One heaped teaspoon of powder per cup, with one cup of cold water per serve, measured in the cup you will drink from.
