Forget the espresso machine. For this coffee, the beans are ground as fine as flour, heated slowly with water in a small pot and poured, grounds and all, into a small cup. You drink it slowly, stop before you reach the sludge, and in some homes someone then reads your future in what’s left.
UNESCO added Turkish coffee culture and tradition to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013. The listing calls the tradition a symbol of hospitality and friendship, and a cup is still a standard way to welcome a guest.
How It’s Made
You need a cezve, a small long-handled pot, traditionally copper; outside Turkey it’s often called an ibrik. Into it go very finely ground coffee, cold water and, if you want it, sugar. That last part matters. The sugar goes in before brewing, so you have to decide how sweet you want it when you order.
The pot goes on low heat. As the coffee warms, a foam rises, and just as it starts to boil the pot comes off the heat. Many cooks bring it up two or three times to build more foam. The foam, köpük, is the mark of a good cup. The coffee comes in a small cup of about 90 ml, the kahve fincanı, with a glass of water and often a piece of Turkish delight.
How to Order
- Sade: no sugar
- Az şekerli: a little sugar
- Orta or orta şekerli: medium
- Çok şekerli: sweet
Let it sit for a minute before you drink, so the grounds settle. Sip from the top and stop when you taste grit. The grounds stay in the cup.
Istanbul’s First Coffee Houses
Coffee was being drunk in Istanbul by 1539. The city’s first coffee house opened in 1554 (some accounts say 1551), set up by two merchants from Syria, Hakem from Aleppo and Şems from Damascus. Coffee houses spread fast after that and became the city’s meeting places, for talk, games and news.
A Cup Remembered for Forty Years
There’s a Turkish saying, bir fincan kahvenin kırk yıl hatırı vardır: a cup of coffee is remembered for forty years. Offering coffee is a way of making or honoring a bond, and it turns up at big moments too. UNESCO’s listing mentions engagement ceremonies. When a family comes to ask for a bride’s hand, tradition has her make and serve the coffee, and in some families she slips salt into the groom’s cup to see how he takes it.
Reading the Grounds
When the cup is empty, some people turn it upside down onto the saucer, let it cool, and then read the patterns the grounds leave on the inside of the cup. It’s called kahve falı, coffee fortune telling, and it’s usually more about conversation than prophecy. A friend who reads cups well is always welcome at the table.
The same drink is made across the Balkans and the Middle East under other names. In Greece it’s Greek coffee, the hot counterpart to the iced freddo Greeks drink all summer. If you want to try it at home, a small cezve costs little, but most home grinders can’t go fine enough, so buy the coffee ready-ground from a Turkish shop. And don’t try to turn it into a cortado. Turkish coffee is complete as it is.