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The Coffee 100 · make it at home

Turkish coffee, brewed in a cezve with a thick foam

6 min · 2 small cups

Istanbul's centuries-old coffee, on UNESCO's list: powder-fine coffee simmered slowly in a copper cezve with sugar to taste, its foam the mark of a good cup.

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The real one

You need

• 2 heaped tsp (about 14 g) Turkish coffee, ground to a fine powder like flour
• 140 ml (2 small Turkish cups) cold filtered water
• Sugar to taste: none (sade), a little (orta, 1 tsp a cup), or sweet (şekerli, 2 tsp a cup)
• A small cezve (cezve or ibrik), and Turkish delight and water to serve

How to make it

1. Measure (1 min): Measure the cold water using the cups you'll serve in. Put it in the cezve with the coffee and sugar.
2. Stir (30 sec): Stir until the coffee sinks and there are no dry lumps. Then stop stirring.
3. Heat slowly (3 to 4 min): Set over the lowest heat. As it warms, a dark foam forms on top. Just before it boils, when the foam rises, take it off the heat.
4. Share the foam (30 sec): Spoon a little foam into each cup. Put the cezve back on the heat until the foam rises once more, then pour slowly, half into each cup, so the foam stays on top.
5. Serve: Let it sit a minute for the grounds to settle. Serve with a glass of water and Turkish delight. Stop drinking when you reach the grounds.

Tips

• Never let it boil hard: boiling kills the foam and the coffee tastes burnt.
• Heat it on a gas flame or a sand bath if you can; slower is better.
• Turn the cup upside down on its saucer when you've finished and someone will read your fortune in the grounds.

Chef Amazing's own home version, in our words; not any café's recipe.