At home, at work, or among friends, Turkish coffee is drank all over the Middle East, every day. Some believe the left-over grinds can predict the future.

Café Turkí or Turkish coffee is taken for granted all through the Middle East. It’s the daily comfort of the people, always cheap and always on hand. Even tastier with a dash of fresh cardomon.

Eco coffee drinkers can even find organic Turkish coffee or use fair trade coffee beans bought in health food stores and some cafés. You can always buy the beans and then just order the size of the grind.

Traditionally, Turkish coffee is made in a finjan (seen above). It’s a special pot with a long handle, wider at the bottom so that most of the grounds stay behind when you pour the coffee out. You add the coffee, add water and boil it over a stove. In the Middle East, they’re commonly available. But if you don’t have a finjan, any small pot still makes good coffee.

Make your Turkish coffee from any bean you like. The important thing is that it be finely ground like espresso. A coarse grind won’t give you the aroma and flavor of the real thing. Some locals in Jaffa swear by burnt coffee. We find it too edgy. But go with your palette.

What is cardamom?

You’ll often get a whiff of cardamom in the coffee as you go past someone’s steaming cup. This recipe includes the spice known as “hawaij” for you to use at your discretion. We like to chew on the bits that float, but it’s all a matter of taste. The world is often divided up by those who love corriander and those who hate it. The cardamom spice is no different.

Cardamom, sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genera Elettaria and Amomum in the family Zingiberaceae.

Turkish Coffee Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cold water
• 1 heaping teaspoon extra finely ground coffee – experiment with less or more, according to taste
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 2 teaspoons sugar

Method:

1. Bring water and sugar to a boil in the pot.
2. Remove from heat and add coffee and cardamom.
3. Return pot to the heat and allow the coffee to come to a boil, while stirring. Remove from the heat when the coffee foams.
4. Pour the coffee into a cup or glass. Drink immediately; the finest aroma is considered to be in the head of froth.

You can add some milk or oat milk, but typically Turkish coffee is always drunk black.

Enjoy!