Turkish Coffee necessities

You will need to have a Turkish coffee pot, a spoon, sugar and coffee that has been ground to a fine powder. Although most people use the Arabica beans, it really doesn't matter what kind of coffee you use. However, it should be a medium roast, because you will actually roast it again while making it. You can get the Turkish coffee in several different ways:

A. Purchase a special Turkish Grinder (regular electric grinders with blades spinning at a high speed will NOT do the job) and grind the coffee yourself. We do have these available at our store if you are interested.

B. Grind it at your local grocery store! Yes, that's right. You may not have noticed, but most grinders (99.9%) at your local grocery store in the U.S. have a Turkish coffee setting! Just select the "Turkish Coffee" setting and grind your beans.

C. Buy it ready made from Turkish Coffee World. We sell it in our store but you can also find it at most Mediterranean stores if you live in a big city.

Preparation

Measure the amount of cold water you will need. Place your pot of water on the stove and turn the heat to medium-high (just until the water heats up). Add about 1-2 heaping tea spoons (or 1 tablespoon) of coffee per demitasse cup (3 oz). Do not stir it yet. Just let the coffee "float" on the surface because if you stir it now you might cause it to clump up. Add sugar to taste. Do not stir it yet, Let the water warm up little bit as above. When the coffee starts to sink into the water and the water is warm enough to dissolve your sugar, stir it several times and then turn down the heat to low. You should stir it several times, up until it your brew starts to foam (you can also vigorously move your spoon side to side to encourage to start the foaming).
When you see the bubble "ring" forming on the surface, turn down the heat a little bit more or move your pot away from the heat source. Pay attention to the bubbles that are forming at this stage. Bubbles should be very small in size. From this point on watch your coffee carefully. Do not let the temperature get hot enough to start boiling. (NEVER LET IT BOIL - many instructions on how to make Turkish coffee use the term "boiling" but this is totally inaccurate) The key idea here is to let the coffee build a thick froth and that occurs approximately around 158 F or 70 C (i.e., much cooler than the boiling point of water which is 212 F or 100 C at standard pressure. If your brew comes to a boil, you will not have any foam because it will simply evaporate!). Keep it at the "foaming" stage as long as you can without letting it come to a boil. You might even gently stir your brew a little bit at this stage. The more froth, the better it will taste. Also your coffee must be fresh or it will not foam as well. If your brew gets too hot and begins to "rise", then move it away from the heat or just turn it down. You are almost done. Repeat this process until your foam has "raised" and "cooled" at the most couple of times (NOT 3-4 times like some instructions. Even once is enough). Then pour in to your cups (quickly at first to get out the foam, then slowly) while making sure that each cup has equal amount of foam! If you are serving several cups then you might be better off spooning the foam into each cup.

Well, all you really need to make turkish coffee is the pot (ibrik or cezve), coffee, sugar, and water. The coffee should be very finely ground and is usually spiced.

Most Middle Eastern grocery stores will carry Turkish coffee, but sometimes it is also called Arabic coffee or Greek coffee. The only difference I've noticed was that, at least in the brands I bought, the Turkish was spiced with cardamom, the Greek with cinnamon, and the Arabic didn't have any noticeable seasoning. If you want to add the spices yourself, most coffee shops that sell whole beans should be able to grind coffee to a Turkish grind for you.

As for the coffee pot, your best bet would be either the Middle Eastern grocery stores again, or to look online.

Well, first you need the coffee Turkish Coffee on Amazon. Then you need the pot Turkish Coffee Pots on Amazon. Ideally, you might want to serve the coffee in traditional cups Turkish Coffee Cups on Amazon. If you want to grind your own, a Turkish grinder might be of use Turkish Coffee Grinder on Amazon. Finally, more info might help: Coffee Geek article, Turkish Coffee World article

From the Coffee Geek article: " It's also surprisingly easy to do. Your biggest expense is a good grinder - a decent electric burr grinder that can grind extra fine (finer than espresso even) is needed; alternatively, there are "turkish mills" around, including an excellent model by Zassenhaus can be had, sometimes for much less.

Besides the grinder, you need good quality water, good quality, fresh roasted coffee, a stirring spoon made of metal, and a device called an ibrik also called a cezve. This is the brewer. It is usually made of copper, with a long wooden handle, though sometimes it is made out of steel or other metals. The pot has a wide base and a narrow top, with a spout on one or two sides for pouring. Ibriks can be found in a variety of sizes from 2 cup on up to 6 or 8 cups. Note, a "cup" is the size of a large espresso cup - about 3ounces, or 90mls per serving, or less.

And it's important to note the "cup size" of the pot is not matched to how much is brewed if full - in fact, there needs to be a good amount of airspace in the pot while brewing, but not too much. The process involves foaming up the liquid in stages, and if you use a pot that's too big, too much of the foam sticks to the sides and can contribute to many bitters in the cup.

Oh, and you need a heat source. For our visuals, we're using a butane powered heating element - very suited for brewing an ibrik, though an electric or gas stove will do fine as well.

When done right, (and it's not hard to do right), the coffee is very intense, but very pleasing to the tongue. It also breaks one of the cardinal rules we usually have for coffee - don't boil (and reboil) the brew. But as you'll see, it's all good!

This is extremely important advice: never take your eye off the process when brewing turkish coffee. Things can happen in a blink of the eye - and you'll create a big mess on your stove if you lose attion. But it is very easy to do.

If you really want to go authentic, or want to tone down the strength and intensity of the brew, adding spices such as cardamom, anise, or a sweetener such as an easily dissolvable sugar can be added. In fact, sugar is almost considered part of the process. The famous old proverb, "Coffee should be as black as hell, as strong as death, and as sweet as love" refers to turkish coffee, and you'll note the sweet part ;)"

I will give you my cheap-o turkish coffee answer as it was taught to me by several people from Turkey. First, make sure your coffee is super-finely ground. An espresso grind would work, but even finer would be great if you have access to a grinder.

The pot is not optional.

The ratio I was taught to use is 1 tsp of sugar (preferably demerera or some other non-processed sugar) for every 2 heaping tsp of coffee and every 2 oz of water.

Put it in the ibrik (the pot), and put it on your burner. Toss in a few caradmom pods if you'd like. Bring it to a boil but DO NOT walk away and leave it unattended or it could make a mess that's nigh impossible to clean. Once it boils it will quickly rise to the top of the ibrik, remove it from the burner and wait about 1 minute. Then put it back on the burner and return to a boil. Repeat 1 more time (a total of 3 times it comes to a boil). Then pour into espresso cups.

This does several things "wrong" (like exceeding the max temp for coffee, etc) but the high volume of sugar offsets any acidity that would normally be in place for a very balanced cup.