Coffee

The first step in making delicious Turkish coffee is to make the right coffee bean choice. Turkish coffee is made by using beans of Coffee Arabica from a variety of coffee producing countries, but a majority of Turkish coffee beans have been imported from Brazil beginning as early as the 18th century, when it became clear that the Yemeni production …

Turkish coffee pot is designed specifically to make Turkish coffee. The long handle is particularly useful to avoid burning hands, and the brim is designed to serve the coffee. Please note that the most important element in choosing the coffee pot is its size. You should neither use a too big nor a too small pot. Depending upon how many …

Turkish coffee is served in small cups and when you order it you will be asked how sweet you would like it. You will need to learn the three words which describe the levels of sweetness. ‘Sade’ is without sugar, ‘orta’ is with a medium amount of sugar and ‘sekerli’ is with a lot of sugar. It is usually helpful …

In the words of the famous 20th century Turkish Poet Yahya Kemal, coffee has created its own “culture” in Turkey. A little bit more than a casual visit to Turkey would convince anyone that this is the case. Coffee for Turks is not simply a drink, but has its own history, its institutions (coffeehouses), its rituals, its own rules of …

Istanbul was introduced to coffee in 1543 during the reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent by Özdemir Pasha, the Ottoman Governor of Yemen, who had grown to love the drink while stationed in that country. Coffee soon became a vital part of palace cuisine and was very popular in court. The position of Chief Coffee Maker (kahvecibaşı) was added to …

Coffee reached North America in 1668. The first coffeehouse in New York, “The King’s Arms”, opened in 1696. In 1714, the Dutch presented Louis XIV with a coffee sapling from their plantations on Java. The sapling was planted in the royal Jardin des Plantes in Paris. In 1723, a French mariner named Gabriel du Clieu took a sapling from the …

As coffee and coffeehouses became an integral part of social culture, coffee became the only drink in the world to have spawned a whole related culture. Ever since the first coffeehouse opened in Istanbul in 1554, coffee has had a tremendous impact on art and culture. Countless artists, students and teachers have come together in coffeehouses to read books, perform …

Coffee tasting, also called “cupping”, is the sensory evaluation of coffee, which assesses more than just taste. The senses of smell, taste and “feel” are all involved in this analysis. Smell and taste are very dependent on each other and difficult to separate in assessment. The sense of “feel” involved in assessing coffee evaluates the coffee’s body. All coffee is …

Roasting is the briefest yet most important and painstaking stage in coffee production. This process carries a heavy weight of responsibility. Both time and money can be lost in a brief moment of carelessness, rendering the labour of hundreds of people on the fields and in the production process pointless. The heat applied to the green coffee beans during roasting …

After the hidden flavours of a high quality coffee have been brought out by roasting, the coffee must undergo one more process before it can be prepared: “grinding”. Every type of coffee is ground differently. From the finest to the most coarse, these are Turkish Coffee, espresso and filter coffee. Turkish Coffee undergoes a much more complicated grinding process than …

Drinking coffee is a unique pleasure for Turks. A cup of Turkish coffee is endowed with a variety of important connotations for Turks: friendship, affection and sharing. This is best illustrated in the old saying: “A single cup of coffee can create a friendship that lasts for 40 years”. Turkish coffee is such an intrinsic part of Turkish culture that …