Turkish Coffee Beans

A connoisseur can tell the difference between a properly made Turkish coffee and one prepared half heartedly. The best Turkish coffee is made from freshly roasted beans ground just before brewing. A dark roast is preferable but even a medium roast coffee will yield a strong aroma and flavor. The grinding is done either by pounding in a mortar (the original method) or using a mill (the more usual method today), and the end result is a fine coffee powder. Beans for Turkish coffee are ground even finer than the grind used in pump-driven espresso makers; therefore, Turkish coffee should be powdery. It is the finest grind of coffee used in any style of coffee making.

The necessary equipment to prepare Turkish coffee consists of a narrow-topped small boiling pot called an ibrik, and a heating apparatus. The ingredients are finely ground coffee, sometimes cardamom, cold water and if desired sugar. It is served in small cups called fincan that have no handles. Water is measured using the cups. The coffee and the sugar are usually added to water, rather than being put into the pot first. For each cup, between one and two heaped teaspoons of coffee are used. The coffee and the desired amount of sugar are stirred until all coffee sinks and the sugar is dissolved. Then the pot is put on the fire. No stirring is done beyond this point, as it would dissolve the foam. Just as the coffee begins boiling, the pot is removed from the fire and the coffee is poured into the cups.

To make proper Turkish coffee you need Turkish coffee beans and if you want to grind the beans, a Turkish coffee grinder. To sweeten coffee with sugar is a relatively new usage as Turkish coffee is had without any sugar.