Turkish Coffee

Coffee itself was discovered in the highlands of Ethiopia, but the method of roasting, grinding, and brewing it in hot water was perfected in Yemen and then brought to Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1554 when the first coffeehouses — "kahvehane" — opened in the Tahtakale district. Within a decade there were hundreds of coffeehouses in Istanbul. The Ottoman Empire became the conduit through which coffee reached the rest of the world: Venetian merchants brought it to Italy, Dutch traders to Holland, and from there it spread to every European court.

Turkish coffee differs from all subsequent coffee preparations in one fundamental way: the grounds are not filtered out. The extremely fine-ground coffee is cooked in a small long-handled pot called a "cezve" until it froths — never boiled — and poured directly into the cup, grounds and all. You wait for the grounds to settle, then drink the clear upper liquid, stopping before you reach the dense sediment at the bottom.

A UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2013, Turkish coffee is inseparable from hospitality: it is offered to guests, drunk after meals, and served at engagements where the bride-to-be traditionally makes coffee for the groom's family. The grounds left after drinking can be used for tasseography — reading fortunes — a practice that has surrounded Turkish coffee since the first coffeehouses of Istanbul.