Greek / Turkish Coffee

Koffee_Kosmo

I enjoy Greek/Turkish coffee immensely And for a very small equipment cost its not hard to see why its so popular in Europe, Africa and the Middle east That in turn has been transplanted with migration to all parts of the world in a similar way to espresso KK

Bottom_Line

Any rules/guidelines for beginners to learn the basics before messing around a bit? Mainly quantities - teaspoon and demitasse cups vary in size. Anyone have coffee in gram to water in ml ratios? I have tried a couple of times before and got good results but just from winging it. Much better than from places that serve it but I think it was due to my beans at home being fresh roast and fresh ground. Cheers

Koffee_Kosmo

Its all relative with this style of coffee against your taste preference You get you favourite cup This cup is the the basis of your water volume Add coffee & sugar to taste preference & starting at 1 tea spoon of each + or - Just don't boil in the brewing stage as noted in my instructions above On the basis of what I have said in this post I have been offered coffee that has been to strong or to sweet This is the time to add some water to it from the glass that is normally offered with the coffee KK

Bottom_Line

Thanks KK, I think I was putting too much in. I tried the method of two demitasse cups and 2 heaped teaspoons. This worked out as 135ml of water and 8g of coffee. Seemed much nicer, now to play around! Cheers

RichardM

I just tried Turkish coffee for the first time ever. Simply ground super fine, two teaspoons in a large cup/mug, poured over 95 degree water (I have a jug that stops before boiling), stir, and wait to settle out. It was amazing. By far the best black coffee I've ever had. Even the wife enjoyed it!

Koffee_Kosmo

RichardM wrote:

I just tried Turkish coffee for the first time ever. Simply ground super fine, two teaspoons in a large cup/mug, poured over 95 degree water (I have a jug that stops before boiling), stir, and wait to settle out. It was amazing. By far the best black coffee I've ever had. Even the wife enjoyed it!

I am pleased that you enjoyed this style of coffee You are not alone as many millions of people also enjoy it on a daily basis KK

Koffee_Kosmo

As we always say for espresso Fresh beans and correct grind also applies to Greek/Turkish style coffee My preference is to roast light to the pseudo cracks of second crack This produces a rust coloured grind ( and I feel its just right to please ones pallet) The grind is important The consistency " is " (not should be) like White flour / or Talcum powder I use a stone flour mill similar to this (see image) to grind on demand for a fresh brew http://www.skippygrainmills.com.au/hand.htm KK

ash

This is a style of coffee that I am keen to try at some stage. I may even get around to buying some gear to try at home. I like the idea of bring the brew up to just short of a boil then taking it off the heat. Is it a matter of just trying out how many times to do this to suit my taste??

Koffee_Kosmo

ash wrote:

This is a style of coffee that I am keen to try at some stage. I may even get around to buying some gear to try at home. I like the idea of bring the brew up to just short of a boil then taking it off the heat. Is it a matter of just trying out how many times to do this to suit my taste??

Bring it up to just short of the boil - once or twice is enough Some go to a third for good luck It costs very little to set up KK

UNM

Any tips on best beans for this style of coffee (or beans that don't generally work well)? Currently I have PNG Bannum Wo, malawi nyika, MM and some very lightly roasted harfusa. I just got a suitable pot (about 300ml capacity), so will give it a go later today.

Koffee_Kosmo

UNM wrote:

Any tips on best beans for this style of coffee (or beans that don't generally work well)? Currently I have PNG Bannum Wo, malawi nyika, MM and some very lightly roasted harfusa. I just got a suitable pot (about 300ml capacity), so will give it a go later today.

Best beans are Africans and Brazil or a combination of both My personal preference is to roast to first snaps of second crack When one views the ground coffee I personalty like the appearance of rust colour Grind to talcum powder,flour consistency for best results KK

Koffee_Kosmo

This is a good video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8EWOhd_INE KK

UNM

Watched the video. Seems like the voice on that came from some computer generated software - just sounded so weird! Doesn't help they were speaking in American English of course. I also saw the first pour of coffee hit the boil due to the metal being hotter at the rim. I think I need to get a real Briki, rather than a milk jug as the broader base and lack of height probably don't help. Was a bit surprised nowhere seemed to sell them, but they had pallet loads of preground greek coffee. Wonder if my new grinder can grind fine enough (doubt it). Another question. Is there such a thing as too fine a grind?

Koffee_Kosmo

Head down to a Greek deli close to you and you will find a briki for sale Nothing is stopping you from getting a bag of coffee to practice on :thumb:

Another question. Is there such a thing as too fine a grind?

No this style is the finest I used to have a stone grinder normally used for grinding flour However a mortar and pestle will finish the job if you think your grind is to course KK

UNM

So I had a success with turkish coffee today. Approx 12gram coffee to 120ml water and 1/4tsp of maple syrup to sweeten slightly (any more and I have found it tastes too sweet) When the coffee first started to rise, I lifted a bit off the heat and then when the foam reached the lip of the briki, poured the foam into cups. Then returned to heat and got it to rise again and poured second batch to top up the cups. Worked better this way and I got plenty of 'crema' in the cup. Of course having a correctly shaped briki helped. I think slightly less coffee to water ratio would probably be better, but 1:10 was easy to measure.

Koffee_Kosmo

UNM wrote:

So I had a success with turkish coffee today. Approx 12gram coffee to 120ml water and 1/4tsp of maple syrup to sweeten slightly (any more and I have found it tastes too sweet) When the coffee first started to rise, I lifted a bit off the heat and then when the foam reached the lip of the briki, poured the foam into cups. Then returned to heat and got it to rise again and poured second batch to top up the cups. Worked better this way and I got plenty of 'crema' in the cup. Of course having a correctly shaped briki helped. I think slightly less coffee to water ratio would probably be better, but 1:10 was easy to measure.

Very good :thumb: A little practice goes a long way KK

Koffee_Kosmo

Just came across this story on the Internet Remember the expression

hiphipharar

We know where your allegiances lie KK 🙂 Perhaps the article was sponsored by the Ikaria Tourist Bureau ??? But also keep this in mind:

Koffee_Kosmo

Because this a coffee forum I like to believe that there is some measure of validity to the beneficial effects of coffee :thumb: KK

Koffee_Kosmo

I posted this my personal method of brewing on the US Homeroasters Forum and forgot about posting it here Some research was made on the net for the historical additions This is a guide to Greek / Turkish Coffee I wrote it from experience and some extra & helpful information from others & even some from internet research Hope you find it informative About Greek/Turkish Coffee: Equipment The necessary equipment to prepare Greek/Turkish coffee consists of a narrow-topped small boiling pot called an ibrik, cezve, dzezva, xhezve or br