Turkish Coffee Selected as Intangible Cultural Heritage

Turkish coffee and its traditional culture were included in the list of intangible cultural heritage at the eighth meeting of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Turkish coffee, also known as Arabica coffee, is the ancestor of European coffee, which has a history of 700 to 800 years. Coffee was introduced into Turkey in the 16th century and began to be commercialized. Due to Turkey's geographical location across Europe and Asia, coffee quickly spread to the European continent.

Turkish coffee not only has a long history, but also retains the traditional Ottoman culture in terms of production technology. Not only the fine grinding technology, the addition of a wide variety of spices, even the coffee brewing utensils also represent the inheritance of a culture. From the taste point of view, Turkish coffee compared with other coffee, the taste is relatively special, without any partner or milk, coffee grounds are not filtered out, mainly bitter taste. Therefore, Turks often drink coffee with a cup of ice water, first drink a sip of ice water, and then taste a sip of coffee.

Another major feature of Turkish coffee culture is coffee fortune-telling. After drinking coffee, the fortune of the day is predicted according to the shape of the coffee grounds deposited at the bottom of the cup, adding a touch of mysterious exoticism while drinking coffee.