behold cypriot village coffee!

EspressoBeagle

currently melting in 42 degree heat in cyprus… this means only one thing, time for a coffee! we are off the beaten track here in the mountains so headed out to the local traditional village cafe , picture fig trees, a load of old boys sat in the shade, crummy plastic chairs and almost like being sat in someone’s back yard… anyway, scene set and now your all practicallly with me i’ll get on to the interesting bit. cypriot coffee ordered and i’m presented with a double espresso sized drink… no crema, jet black and thick, grounds sludge remaining in bottom. on to the taste, wow, stunning earthy, complex not any bitterness, bloody lovely!

naturally i strike up the international language of coffee with the old cypriot lady who’s making it and within seconds im back of house eyeing up the brew method.

turns out the top is the boiler and the bottom is a tray full of beach sand with basically a bunsen burner underneath to heat it. coffee from a tub, no sign of a grinder… grinds placed into the little brass portafilter thingy - add water from the boiler then she brings it to a swift boil using the heated sand and hey presto - we discuss the availability of these machines and i glean that they aren’t available anymore - not surprised looks like a medieval torture tool.. HSE would lock you up! i proudly show her a photo of my gleaming ECM synchronika and accompanying mahlkonig k30 , she’s isn’t impressed, laughs out load and throws her arms in the air Mediterranean style!

i ordered another coffee.

it was a good reminder that you can still brew excellent coffee without a spending a fortune

love the fact that wherever you are in the world when you share an interest you can strike up a conversation irrespective of language, age , culture etc
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anyone seen anything like this before

MWJB

EspressoBeagle Apart from the integral boiler, it’s Cezve/Turkish/Greek style coffee.

It’s not unusual to have a little foam (not crema), but not essential.

A very old way of making coffee, I used to do it quite a bit, but prefer the cleaner cup from filter.

Elcarajillo

EspressoBeagle As MWJB I too have a Cezve and enjoy a Turkish / Greek coffee occasionally.

EspressoBeagle

interesting - not a brew method i’ve ever researched. out of interest @Elcarajillo @MWJB what beans do you use when brewing with your cezve? i suspect whatever’s on the shelf but just in the off chance you go for something specific and i guess pretty dark roasted..

MWJB

EspressoBeagle I only buy light roasted coffee (sometimes arrives closer to medium though).

75-100 grams of coffee per litre.

I used hot, pre boiled water in the cezve, then on a low hob heat until foam rises, about 10 min. or a little more, on the hob.

Grind doesn’t need to be super fine, you’ll just get less foam if on the coarser side, espresso/moka pot grind will still extract OK.

memzey

I drink quite a bit of Turkish coffee. Any beans will do and, if done correctly, the characteristics of the bean can be found in the cup. One that recently surprised me was Rave Fudge, very nice when brewed as Turkish.

Do be mindful however, that not every grinder that can grind for espresso will be able to grind fine enough for Turkish. It’s slow feed, high RPM and just before the chirp on my DF64v.

memzey

If I’m doing a single cup cezve I’ll use at least 5 grams of very finely ground coffee to 60 grams of hot water. I’ll use a moderately high temperature and a lot less time than 10 minutes to raise the foam. Sugar/sweetener optional but if taken that goes in with ground coffee.

MWJB

memzey You sure about those measurements? Ground coffee immersed absorbs nearly 3x its own weight in water, so it’s hard to see how you end up with more than about 20ml of beverage?

It’s also going to be very under-extracted…some may like this, but it’s not for me.

memzey

MWJB D’oh! You are quite right of course. I meant “at least 5 grams of very finely ground coffee per 60 grams of water”. I have edited it to prevent confusion. Not sure where the extra 1 came from, they aren’t even close to each other on the keyboard!

I don’t time myself, I’ll try to remember to do so next time I have a kahve, but I’m not taking anywhere 10 minutes and my extractions are normally very good. It will be interesting to see how long they actually take. Having said that any beans will do, I do feel that the very lightly roasted ones are a bit wasted on Turkish. A nice medium/medium dark can really shine though.

EspressoBeagle

thanks chaps, i’m running a k30 vario and whilst apparently they can have issues grinding fine i haven’t yet experienced it and am always at the light end of the bean spectrum…

now all i have to do is… expand the brewing equipment to encompass a cezve… take over more kitchen cabinet space, convince a wife who doesn’t drink coffee that this is indeed a necessary step in one’s journey towards coffee nirvana and not act like a child on xmas day when it arrives in the post… (i’m beginning to get similar looks from the boss and now the kids when coffee beans/paraphernalia arrives to that when craft beer arrives)🤦‍♂️