Turkish Coffee: the Culture hidden in the Coffee Cup

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When we opened the shop two years ago, many friends from Turkey and Taiwan asked us when we would launch Turkish coffee.

At that time, we also had a skeptical attitude towards Turkish coffee, worried that the strong sense of Turkish coffee would affect consumers who pay attention to fine coffee. Two years later, when I was on a trip to Turkey, I finally drank authentic Turkish coffee, which was full of shock in my mouth, which made me decide that I must bring Turkish coffee back to Taiwan and share it with my friends. The most important feature of Turkish coffee is that it does not filter the coffee grounds, so when I drink to the bottom of the cup, the taste of the coffee grounds really makes me a little uncomfortable at first. Turkish coffee is regarded as an important cultural asset in Turkey. For example, before the Turk prepares to get married, the husband's parents and the groom-to-be will visit the woman's house. The bride-to-be's test is whether she can make a good cup of Turkish coffee for the husband's parents to drink. Interestingly, the bride-to-be will deliberately not add sugar to the groom-to-be coffee, on the contrary, a lot of salt will be added to test whether the groom-to-be really loves her, so the groom-to-be needs to drink the salted coffee. You must also smile and tell the bride that the coffee is good.

When it comes to Turkish coffee, of course, we must introduce the well-known Turkish coffee grounds divination. Even the movie The Water Diviner has a short paragraph about Turkish coffee divination.

When I was in Turkey at that time, when I performed Turkish coffee divination for the first time, it really scared me. Besides knowing my brother's English name, the Turkish sister who predicted my coffee could better understand my state of mind, difficulties, and even wishes at that time. I didn't expect that so many secrets about me could be revealed in a small cup.

Turkish coffee is suitable for Turkish coffee pot to brew, and coffee powder we directly import the famous local Mr. kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi coffee powder, because Turkish coffee needs to be ground more finely than Italian coffee, so Turkish coffee has a special bean grinder, if there is no bean grinder, there is no need to worry, most of the local Turkish coffee is also sold directly in powder. The ratio of powder to water is the amount of water in a cup of Turkish coffee, with two teaspoons of Turkish coffee powder. With regard to the heat source, we have also tried to cook it with a direct fire (gas stove), but in the end, it will be bitter and thick on the palate. later, in order to adjust it to a taste suitable for Taiwanese, we changed it to a light stove for siphon coffee. On the contrary, the taste will not have too heavy impact, and the flavor can be pushed layer by layer.

In addition, we also brought back local coffee cups from Turkey, with carvings full of Ottoman style, especially with dessert boxes for Turkish fudge in the middle, but at present our store focuses on dark chocolate!

After drinking, we will cover the inner cup as shown in the photo, because the internal coffee grounds pattern is used for divination, so when drinking Turkish coffee, we should pay special attention to not drinking all the coffee grounds in the cup! If you can, it's best to keep a small sip of coffee liquid, because only in this way can you show more patterns in the cup!

After about five minutes, when the cup is cold, you can pick up the coffee cup and look at the pattern in the cup! With regard to the display of the pattern, the diviner needs to open the imagination to observe the pattern in the cup, for example, the fish representative will receive a sum of money, the bird representative will have good news and so on. Most of the divination in Turkish coffee is less negative because Turks believe that divination brings more positive powers to friends rather than worrying about the future. In addition, after divination, Turkish coffee cups and plates need to be washed off quickly for two reasons: first, Turkey is more strict about religion, and actually holds a more conservative attitude towards divination, so after divination, coffee cups need to be washed off quickly. Second, the reason to wash it off quickly is for fear that others will see the pattern in your cup and know your secret!

There is a Turkish proverb that says: Fala inanma, fals kalma. This proverb means, don't be too superstitious in fortune-telling, but you can't do without it! Therefore, regardless of the result of divination, Turkish coffee not only brings a new taste of coffee, but also brings a new cultural experience. I hope you will like it.