How To Make Turkish Coffee

Turkish coffee is made by pulverizing freshly medium-roasted coffee beans in a mortar and pestle, or grinding them very fine in a cylindrical brass coffee mil.

Put the coffee powder (about one teaspoon per demitasse cup of coffee) into a special pot with a wide bottom, narrower neck, a spout, and a long handle. Add sugar and a cup of cold water for each cup of coffee you're making, then heat the brew to frothing three times. (When the froth reaches the pot’s narrow neck, it's a sign to remove the pot from the heat and let the froth recede.)

After the third froth-up, pour off a bit of the froth into each cup. Bring the liquid still in the pot to the froth-point once again, then pour it immediately, muddy grounds all, into the cups.

Wait at least a minute for the grounds to settle before you pick up the tiny cup and sip. Enjoy the rich, thick flavor, but stop sipping when you taste the grounds coming through. Leave the “mud” in the bottom of the cup.

(Fortune-tellers turn the cup over on the saucer, lift off the cup, and read your future in the sloppy grounds.)

You can make Turkish coffee several ways. plain, no sugar (fairly bitter) with a little sugar (takes off the bitter edge; less than a teaspoon per cup) with medium sugar (sweetish; about a teaspoon of sugar for each cup) with lots of sugar (quite sweet; two teaspoons of sugar or more) with cardamom and sugar. (middle eastern style great unforgettable aroma.)