Turkish coffee in Jordan

Coffee preparation techniques besides espresso like pourover.
Mbb
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#1: Post by Mbb »

Im currently working in Jordan. We drink a lot of turkish /arabic coffee at work. The arab workers make it all night, do not use sugar in it. (Contrary to what internet says )

Though I dont care for the cardamom they put in it ,(when ground) Ive been playing with brewing turkish style with my own fresh home roasted coffee I brought with me. Its actually pretty good. Fresh REALLY makes difference here. I would actually call it...good. no bitterness, no need for sugar, etc.

Far better than any espresso shot Ive ever had. Fairly balanced, no bitterness, heavy body, and ridiculously easy to make. Just a real pain to grind by hand. I may pick up an ibrik for home.

Other day they crushed up so one thing called "grunfels" near as i can tell, and added it. Turns out it was clove. Just a hint of taste.

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Boldjava
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#2: Post by Boldjava »

Mbb wrote:...Other day they crushed up so onething called "grunfels" near as i can tell, and added it. Turns out it was clove. Just a hint of taste.
Will give cloves a try today.
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namelessone
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#3: Post by namelessone »

There's a popular machine by Beko/Arcelik which makes it even easier, you just add the water and grounds and it will heat it up and then stop automatically when it's reached a certain temperature. I don't know if it's available in Jordan? I use 1:11 ratio of grounds to water with good results (7g/80g per cup).

Typically Turkish coffee is roasted medium/light, but unfortunately uses crap and cheap beans. You can make it much better at home. The fresher the beans, the better. Are you using the Kinu M47 to grind? It's really painful to grind for Turkish especially with light roasted beans. My wrists hurt for a few days after grinding enough beans for 6 people all at once. I used a really fine setting (4 on v1 M47)

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RioCruz
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#4: Post by RioCruz »

A most timely post, Martin. A few days ago I was inspired by something I came across on the internet to break out my ibrik and brew up some turkish delight. I had a truly yummy drink with great flavor. I had brewed turkish several years ago with good results, but had forgotten about it since that time. My latest efforts...and your post...reminded me of what I was missing!

What is your recipe and procedure for brewing turkish?
"Nobody loves your coffee more than you do."
~James Freeman, Blue Bottle

Mbb (original poster)
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#5: Post by Mbb (original poster) »

The arab workers i work with get their coffee beans ground from a coffee shop in a rur al village. Two parts dark roast, one part blonde, and is ground with cardmom. They said its Colombian beans they use. They have several sizes of small dirty pots they make it in, all stainless. With a simple little burner for heat. The Jordanian dinar is pegged to the dollar, and coffee is expensive, about same price we pay

They use 3 scoops to about 250 ml, let it foam up 3 times, and pour evenly into 5-6 little cups with several pours to evenly distribute foam, coffee, grounds. Then let settle.

I quizzed them on differences between arabic coffee, and turkisk. Basically arabic has more cardamom, other spices like saffron, and is drunk on more special occassions. A touch of cardamom might be ok, when the drink tastes like flowers ...not so great for me. Thing is, with good coffee, its decent. No adulterants needed.

namelessone
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#6: Post by namelessone »

I'm Turkish myself so familiar with most of the myths around brewing Turkish coffee :) There's a lot of BS around it like letting it foam 3 times and so on, it's just ritual :) Foam like the crema tastes bad, and has a lot of sediment. I prefer to scoop it up when I'm just having it by myself, but it's seen as a sign of good coffee so when I'm serving guests I don't. It's actually one of the simplest ways you can brew coffee. In the end it's about having good beans, good water and the right amount of brewing. It's more or less like a cupping brew but stronger. I don't like adding spices to the beans as I like to taste the beans themselves.

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Boldjava
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#7: Post by Boldjava »

namelessone wrote:I'm Turkish myself so familiar with most of the myths around brewing Turkish coffee :) There's a lot of BS around it like letting it foam 3 times and so on, it's just ritual :
Your recipe/prep/ratios?
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namelessone
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#8: Post by namelessone replying to Boldjava »

I use ~1:11 ratio (14g coffee/150g water) for two cups, finely ground, at least something that would easily choke an espresso machine would be OK. You don't necessarily need a super fine powder, although that kind of grind gives more mouthfeel / body and might be more authentic. Mix room temp water&coffee, stir lightly to incorporate and then put on stove. Nowadays I use an electric machine but if you're using a stove you can just put it on medium to high heat (depending on gas/electric stove) so that the total brew time is about 2:00. I typically stop just before it would start to boil. Don't let the water boil as this will probably overflow and cause too much turbulence creating a lot of astringency. Pour into cups and let the sediments settle and the coffee cool down for a few mins before drinking.

You can also add 1 or 2 cubes of sugar with the water if someone prefers it sweeter.

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Boldjava
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#9: Post by Boldjava »

Thanks, simple. I had always followed the 3 quick boils, pull, and reheat. I will give yours a go and compare.
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vit
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#10: Post by vit »

Bringing water to boil, taking off, adding coffee and foaming 1-3 times is usually used on Balkans. Turkish way seems to be putting coffee into cold water and taking off when near boiling. Have in mind that there is some history here as well - it depends also on stove, for instance on the gas water will start appearing as close to boil when it's not as hot as on electric (at least from my remembering of measurements I did once in the past), so experiment with the process until you get the best result for particular combination of coffee, stove, ibrik/whatever etc

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