I just finished editing the final draft of my Turkish coffee making guide.

This guide will explain you step by step how to make delicious Turkish coffee and avoid all the usual coffee making mistakes.

You can download and distribute this guide freely, but you are not allowed to sell it, republish it or claim ownership.

I am awaiting all your feedback.

Here is the download link:

Turkish Coffee Making Guide

Enjoy!

It’s been quite a long time since the last post! So, today I’m going to make up for this!

Making Turkish coffee is part Art and part Science.

As you may already know, this is also true for many kinds of coffee making, like espresso and coffee press, but that’s a subject for another day.

Today, let’s enter further inside the world of Turkish coffee.

Until now you may have thought there is only one way of making Turkish coffee.

Well, there are at least three ways of making Turkish coffee. Before I describe them let me tell you a couple of things about the science of coffee making.

(After you have read this message in its entirety you will not only know how to make Turkish coffee better but all kinds of coffee!)

There is a special formula that is needed to make coffee:

Time+Water+Heat+Ground Coffee => Coffee Extraction

If you let hot water in contact with ground coffee for more time then you will extract more taste (molecules) from the coffee. Some of it will be good and some of it may be bad. If you overdo it, and time gets longer than the ideal, you will extract more intense but also bitter taste. (that’s not good, is it?)

The same with heat. If the water is warmer than proper you will get identical results.

So, let’s say you use boiling water. The coffee will be destroyed faster than you can pronounce the word BITTER!!!

What about the coffee grind?

The finer the grind setting the smaller the coffee grounds. Smaller grounds need less time to have their flavour extracted by water (basically it is because they have much bigger surface in contact with the water). So for coffee press you grind your coffee coarse and you let it in the hot water for 3-4 minutes. For espresso where the coffee is much finer ground (and you also use pressure) the proper extraction time is 25 seconds (plus or minus 5).

For Turkish coffee where the grind is even finer than espresso what is the proper extraction time my friend?

Do you think that bringing the coffee to almost boil 3-5 times as some people say is right? Of course not!

20 seconds must be the absolute maximum time for Turkish coffee extraction.

Bringing Turkish coffee to almost boil twice is more than enough. (If you don’t believe me just trust your taste and make a couple of tests yourself).

Now, that we have some basic knowledge about coffee let’s talk about the:

Three Ways Of Making Turkish Coffee

1. The No Stirring Method

This is the easiest way to make Turkish coffee. Grab your favorite Turkish coffee pot and fill it with one and a half demitasse cup of water. Then top it with one heaped teaspoon of ground Turkish coffee and as much sugar as you want (don’t overdo it ).

Do no stir. Put it on low fire. Once the water gets warm enough the ground coffee on top of the water will sink in and mix with the water (this is when the extraction basically starts). Once this mixture gets warm enough foam will start forming on top and and the coffee will start rising (temperature is approximately 80 degrees Celsius). Lift the pot a bit to let the coffee come down again and then put it on fire once more. When it starts foaming and rising again remove it from fire before it boils (temperature is approximately 95 degrees Celsius). Serve immediately and enjoy!

2. The Stirring Method

This is exactly the opposite as you have correctly guessed. Immediately after you put the ingredients in the coffee pot you start stirring. Coffee and water remain in contact for much bigger time than the previous method. This way the result cup has fuller body. Although the taste is stronger the bitterness may be substantially stronger too.

Once the coffee rises in the pot you must stop the fire and serve.

3. The Alternative Method

You might have seen this before. First you add the water and sugar in the pot without any coffee. Then you put the coffee pot on fire and you wait until the first small bubbles appear at the bottom of the pot. This is a sign that the water is hot and just before the boil point. At this point you must add the coffee and start stirring until the coffee rises. You can lift the pot, like in the first method, to let the coffee settle down and then repeat the process but putting the pot back on fire. Once it foams and rises again remove it from the fire and serve.

This method is very different than the first two because the water and coffee contact time is much smaller. The result cup has usually medium body, wiith more refined taste than the first methods. Bitterness is lower too.

I have personally experimented with all these methods and find the result of the third method very nice, but beware!

There is no perfect method!

Do your own experiments to find the taste that suits you. If you want a very strong taste then the second method will be great for you. If you are a fun of espresso but you want to taste Turkish coffee too then start with the third method.

Another factor is also the coffee blend that you use. If the coffee you use is a light blend but you want a stronger taste use the second method. If the blend is stronger than you’d like use the first or third method.

And so on…

Do you want even less bitterness?

If you want less bitter coffee then you must buy fresh roasted coffee with high percentage of Arabica.

A great example is the FreshCoffeeShop (Organic) Turkish coffee which is fresh roasted and delivered worldwide to our customers.

http://www.freshcoffeeshop.com

Of course if you have any personal experience making Turkish coffee you can share your thoughts and results by adding your comment.

Turkish coffee is one of the simplest ways to make delicious coffee.

This is a guide to help you avoid the most common mistakes when making Turkish coffee.

(also published in EzineArticles: Top 10 Turkish coffee mistakes)

Using the wrong proportion

One of the most common mistakes is using the wrong proportion of coffee to water. If you use too much water or too much coffee the result will not be drinkable!

The most common rule is one demitasse cup of water with one teashpoon of coffee. If you want your coffee strong you can use two teaspoons but don’t use more…

Using the wrong grind

In order to make Turkish coffee you must use very fine ground coffee. If you use coarser coffee then you will not be able to extract the delicate coffee flavours. You will also fail to create the special coffee foam on top which is highly prized in many Middle East and Balkan countries. This special foam resembles the espresso crema and it is known as kaimaki in Greece. So, make sure that you use very fine ground coffee.

If you want to grind your own coffee, use a high quality burr grinder (manual or electrical). You can also use a mortar and pestle.

Boiling coffee

You must use a Turkish coffee pot to prepare the coffee. Stir the coffee with the sugar a bit to help them mix with the water.

After you light up the fire and you start heating the coffee in the pot, it is very important to watch carefully as the coffee comes slowly to a boil. It’s imperative that you don’t let it boil!

If it boils then the coffee will get bitter and flat tasing. In order to make delicious Turkish coffee, you must stop the heating when the coffee mixture comes ALMOST to a boil.

At this special moment, the coffee foam forms a ring on top. This foam ring slowly increases in size, closes the gap on top and then the coffee starts rising. As soon as the foam ring closes the gap on top and starts rising ou must stop the heating. If you fail to do this it will boil and the flavour will get destroyed. So, just be careful and take it slow!

Bringing to boil more than 3 times

There are some people who prefer to bring the coffee to almost boil more than once. I find this a loss of time and sometimes it can also lead to a loss of quality. Bringing the coffee to almost boil more than 3 times is an exaggeration!

Adding sugar after the boiling

If you want your coffee medium sweet add one teasoon of sugar for every teaspoon of coffee. If you want your coffee sweet double the amount of sugar. It is important to put the sugar before the heating, to optimize the flavour. The sugar melts and becomes one with the coffee in your mouth.

Using the wrong size pot

In order to make 2 demitasse cups of coffee use a coffee pot (ibrik or cezve) that holds 3 demitasse cups of coffee. You can also measure the capacity of the pot using water. The extra cup is counted to facilitate the whole stirring and foaming process.

Now, you may ask:

“Why can’t I use a 5 cup size coffee pot to make 2 cups of coffee? The bigger the better!”

Unfortunately it’s not like that!

You see… if you use a much bigger coffee pot this makes the coffee foam creation rather hard. The shape of the coffee pot (conical) facilitates the creation of a special oven like effect that makes the foaming much easier and more precise.

If you use a very big coffee pot then it will be hard to make a nice foam on top of the Turkish coffee. Just try it and you will see the difference!

Using hot water to make it faster

There are many professionals who start with hot water in order to make Turkish coffee faster. Actually they have big boilers and when a customer asks for a cup of Turkish coffee, they pour hot water from the boiler inside their coffee pot, they put coffee and sugar and they boil the whole thing as fast as possible!

The result as you may guess is the destruction of all the delicate coffee flavour. This is because of basic physics and chemistry… hot water (90 C degrees or higher) interacts with the coffee and then as if this is not enough you boil the coffee some more!!!

So just use cold coffee and don’t rush. Your taste buds will thank you!

Pouring fast and sloppily

When the heating is done pour the coffee slowly in order to retain the foam on top. If you do it quickly the foam may break apart.

Not letting the coffee settle a bit after serving

After you serve the coffee, the small coffee grounds float everywhere in the cup. Just let them settle for a couple of minutes (except if you like eating coffee )

Not taking enough time to enjoy!

This is in my opinion the greatest mistake of all. We live in very quickly paced timed, full of stress.

Why should you also be in a hurry when drinking your Turkish coffee?

Relax! Take a small sip, lay back and enjoy!

Share what you learned with your friends and offer them a cup of coffee too, won’t you?

Enjoy!