Turkish Coffee
The tradition of cooked coffee in a Finjan (a brass Turkish kettle) began indeed in Turkey, but today people in Turkey drink mainly tea. It is hard to find a high quality Turkish coffee and even harder to find an authentic Turkish coffee.
Although the tradition of Turkish coffee started in Turkey, the country grows tea, not coffee. 70 million Turks drink between one and twenty cups of tea per day. Early last century, Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, promoted the local harvesting of tea and outlawed importation of coffee. Even so, Turkish coffee has an important cultural and social meaning to the people of Turkey today. Coffee arrived in Turkey from the Arabian Peninsula in the sixteenth century. The beverage was considered to have a strange flavor and was forbidden by the sultan. With time it became the favorite drink of the people including the sultan. Cafés opened up all over Istanbul and people from all different backgrounds gathered together to drink coffee and smoke Nargila (hookah) while discussing important matters of the day. The sultan felt threatened and forbid drinking coffee in cafés. The prohibition didn’t last long and drinking coffee became a signature of the Ottoman Empire. The culture around the cafés grew to include reading books and newspapers, playing games of chess and heated discussions with live music. Further, the Ottomans spread the custom of drinking Turkish coffee to every nation they conquered.
Even though black coffee originated in the Arab world, it received the name “Turkish” due to the unique way the Ottomans cooked it. In Turkey, preparation of coffee is a symbol of femininity and to this day, women are judged by the way they prepare the coffee. When a groom’s family come to ask for a woman’s hand in marriage, the bride-to-be prepares and serves them coffee. Preparing and serving coffee was an inseparable part of hospitality and demonstrated respect for guests.
Drinking coffee started conversations and led to the custom of reading coffee which started in Turkey as well.
Turkish coffee Preparation:
· Fill a finjan with proportional amounts of coffee, sugar and water. The ratio is one teaspoon of coffee per cup of water and one teaspoon of sugar.
· Heat on low heat while stirring. Take your time
· Do not boil the coffee.
· When the liquid starts to boil it is time to remove from the stove
· Serve in small porcelain or glass cups.
One important detail that I would like to share with you is the fact that the Israeli company, Elite, is the largest seller of Turkish coffee in the world.
L’haim!
Dorit & Hava
