Turkish Coffee

[JoNorvelleWalker]

 @lindag asked for details of my recent Turkish coffee...

 

 

A few days ago Amazon delivered a lovely tin lined copper cezve:

(eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

 

Armenian inspired, made in Turkey, beautiful little pot, I thought.  But I never imagined how good the coffee it could brew would be.  After googling around a bit, I followed the directions in the included instruction booklet.

 

I've read beans for Turkish coffee often are sourced from Brazil.  I used George Howell Boa Vista Estate Brazilian beans.  Medium roast is called for but I used light roast because that is what I had.

 

For Turkish coffee, beans are ground almost to powder.  I have a Timemore Chestnut C3S ESP Pro.  But the Timemore is painfully manual.  I thought grinding pour-over was bad!  I need to find an electric grinder that is up to grinding Turkish coffee.  Sadly I doubt such a grinder would be inexpensive.

 

Eventually I had 10 grams.  I stirred in 100 grams of water.  I heated the cezve on my Paragon, but since copper is not ferromagnetic I had to use a steel induction adaptor plate.  As soon as the pot boiled I snatched it off the heat and let it settle for a minute or two.  After pouring the coffee in the cup -- and it is a beautiful red ceramic cup -- I let it rest another two minutes.

 

Yield was three or four ounces at most.  But O so good.  I served my Turkish coffee with generously buttered panettone and a small handful of Siirt pistachios.

 

Prior to getting the new cezve I'd been served Turkish coffee only in the Balkans.  That coffee, to my taste, was vile because of all the sugar added.  It was only recently I learned Turkish coffee could be made without any sugar at all.  Wonderful fragrant stuff.  Almost unbelievable.

 

[Smithy]

That is a lovely-looking little pot you have! It reminds me of the coffee pots we saw in Egypt for boiling water and making coffee, although most of the pots we saw for sale were made from aluminum. My husband had one for boiling water in the campfire -- that long handle is ideal for the purpose. As for the coffee itself -- I'm with you that the sugar wrecks it. Never did like coffee that way, except on very special occasions. I can't help you with the grinder. Would an espresso grind be close enough?

[lindag]

From my experience, the cheaper grinders are no bargain.

I've gone though a few over the years and finally have one that I like a lot.

It is not cheap.  The Fellows Ode.  Mush less messy and is reliable.

I've forsaken all others.

Or maybe take Smithy's advice and just use espresso grind.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

2 hours ago, Smithy said:

That is a lovely-looking little pot you have! It reminds me of the coffee pots we saw in Egypt for boiling water and making coffee, although most of the pots we saw for sale were made from aluminum. My husband had one for boiling water in the campfire -- that long handle is ideal for the purpose. As for the coffee itself -- I'm with you that the sugar wrecks it. Never did like coffee that way, except on very special occasions. I can't help you with the grinder. Would an espresso grind be close enough?

 

Turkish grind is finer than espresso.  I'm no expert but from my reading Turkish grind should be about 100 microns or finer.  After all in the case of Turkish coffee one is drinking the grounds.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

2 hours ago, lindag said:

From my experience, the cheaper grinders are no bargain.

I've gone though a few over the years and finally have one that I like a lot.

It is not cheap.  The Fellows Ode.  Mush less messy and is reliable.

I've forsaken all others.

Or maybe take Smithy's advice and just use espresso grind.

 

 

I'm with you that the Fellow grinders are beautiful.  But from the Fellow literature they don't grind fine enough.  Minimum grind for the Ode is 550 microns, for the Ode 2 is 300 microns, and for the Opus is 200 microns.  Just as well the Ode doesn't grind fine enough.  I couldn't afford one anyway!

 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

The brewing method shown in the video reminds me of "camp coffee" my mother used to make in the Sierras when I was a child.  

[TicTac]

2 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Turkish grind is finer than espresso.  I'm no expert but from my reading Turkish grind should be about 100 microns or finer.  After all in the case of Turkish coffee one is drinking the grounds.

 

If you let it sit in the pot long enough and pour slowly, you should avoid most of the grounds.  One leaves a chunk of liquid in the pot with I would estimate 95ish% of the grounded material.

 

 

[rotuts]

you do want some grounds in your cup.

 

and it should be a small 'espresso' style cup.

 

you leave those grounds in the bottom of the cup , w a littleliuid 

 

then rapidly turn over the cup on the saucer

 

wait bit for the ground to slide down the side oft cup

 

then turn over 

 

and the patterns on the sides 

 

tell your fortune.

 

 

also there should be a little ' foam ' on the top of the ibrik

 

that gore into your cup and you drink that.