Turkish Coffee: History, Ritual and How to Order

A small porcelain cup arrives on a tray with a glass of water and a cube of Turkish delight. On top of the dark coffee sits a thick layer of foam. Below it, the grounds slowly settle. You sip the water first, then the coffee. When you finish, someone may even offer to read your fortune in the cup. Turkish coffee is a drink, a ritual and, since 2013, part of UNESCO’s list of the intangible heritage of humanity.

What Is Turkish Coffee?

Turkish coffee is coffee brewed with very finely ground beans and served without filtering. You make it in a small pot called a cezve, with cold water and, if you like, sugar. The grounds stay in the cup, so part of them sinks to the bottom while the rest stays in the drink. The English word “coffee” itself comes from the Turkish kahve, which in turn comes from the Arabic qahwah.

How Turkish Coffee Is Made

The beans and the grind

Any good beans will do, although connoisseurs prefer Arabica roasted medium or medium-dark. Then the beans are ground to a fine powder, because the fineness shapes the foam and the feel in the mouth. Strict traditionalists still pound them in a mortar, while most people use a brass hand mill.

Brewing in the cezve

Cold water, at least 7 grams of coffee per cup and sugar go into the cezve. This pot is traditionally made of thick copper, wider at the base than at the neck. Then the coffee heats slowly until it just begins to froth. The cook pours a little foam into each cup and returns the pot to the heat once or twice. Finally, the coffee fills the cups.

How to order Turkish coffee

Because the sugar goes in during brewing, you choose the sweetness when you order. Ask for sade for no sugar, az şekerli for a little, orta for medium and şekerli for sweet. Coffee usually comes with a glass of water, and often with something small and sweet such as Turkish delight.

A Short History of Turkish Coffee

Coffee reached Istanbul in the 16th century, and a legal document of that century mentions a coffee room in the house of the admiral Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha. Coffeehouses soon followed, and they spread quickly across the city. Suleiman the Magnificent already kept a chief coffee maker at the palace. Still, later rulers sometimes feared the free talk of the coffeehouses. Under Murad IV, keeping one was even a crime, although people often ignored such bans. Coffeehouses were also the stage of Karagöz and Hacivat, the shadow puppet plays.

Coffee, Fortunes and Weddings

Turks say “Bir fincan kahvenin kırk yıl hatırı vardır”: people remember a single cup of coffee for forty years. So if someone offers you a coffee, you owe them friendship for a long time. That is why Turks serve Turkish coffee to guests instead of gulping it on the go.

When the cup is empty, people turn it upside down onto the saucer to cool, then read shapes in the grounds. This kind of fortune-telling is called tasseography. Coffee also plays a part in weddings: when a groom’s family visits to ask for the bride, she serves them coffee. Sometimes she puts salt in the groom’s cup instead of sugar. Then everyone watches whether he drinks it without complaint.

Regional Styles of Turkish Coffee

• Sand coffee: the cezve sits in a pan of hot sand, which brings up the foam almost at once. In Izmir, Kumda Kahve in the Kızlarağası Han has cooked it this way since 2009, at the top of our list of the best cafés in Izmir.
• Dibek coffee: beans crushed in a stone or wooden mortar, a specialty of İzmir and the villages around Urla and Alaçatı.
• Cilveli coffee: a Manisa tradition, topped with roasted almonds and spices that you eat with a spoon.
• Menengiç coffee: in the southeast, especially Gaziantep and Mardin, a caffeine-free “coffee” made from roasted wild pistachio, creamy and nutty.

Then enjoy a cup after a walk through the Spice Bazaar, or in the cafés of Kadıköy and Cihangir. For a morning around the cup, join our Turkish breakfast and coffee tour.