The nectar of the gods. The glorious little cup served with ice water. The never ending conversations and lively debates that surrounds this little drink. Yes, I am talking about, Greek Coffee.

Before I get any further. This coffee is traditionally known as, Turkish Coffee. They are in fact one in the same. However, when you’re in Greece, you’d better not call it that. There is some tension between the two nations, and while I won’t get into it here, I encourage you to do your own research and come to your own conclusions. Just know that when I refer to it as Greek coffee, it’s known around the world as Turkish coffee.

It wasn’t until I was older that I developed a taste for Greek coffee. Not only is it strong, but young people don’t really like the taste of coffee. Now however, I love the stuff and have it a few times a week. There have even been studies done on the benefits of having coffee this way.

For those of you new to Greek coffee, it isn’t made in a drip or french press style. However, I will say french press is my second favorite way to have coffee.

When you pour out Greek coffee, you actually pour the coffee grounds into the cup as well. Don’t worry, they are heavy and sink to the bottom, so you won’t taste them, though it can happen when you get to the end. Just sip slowly and you’ll be alright.

Greek coffee is served in small demitasse cups and comes in a few different styles:

• Sketos (skeh-tohss): No sugar/unsweetened
  
• Metrios (meht-re-ohss): Medium-sweet coffee: 1 to 1 ratio of coffee to sugar (most popular)
  
• Glykos (ghlee-kohss): Sweet coffee: 2 to 1 ratio of sugar to coffee.
  

This type of coffee is made using a briki (µp????), a small metal pot with a long handle. You combine the water, sugar, and coffee, mix and heat until almost a boil. Then you pour out and enjoy.

A few Greek traditions

I am not too sure if these are found in other countries that enjoy coffee this way, but there are two main traditions for Greeks when it comes to drinking coffee.

The first are the bubbles. If you get small bubbles in your coffee, it’s a sign of money to come. Secondly, when you’re done with you coffee, you can turn the cup over and have your fortune read by the shapes and patterns your grounds made. While I don’t know how accurate mine have ever been, it’s fun to have it done.

It’s also worth noting, that if you don’t have that nice foam head, it’s not Greek coffee.
If you’ve never experienced coffee in this manner, I would recommend it next time you have the chance. Just remember to sip slowly, as the grounds are in it, and it will be hot.

Ingredients

•  
• briki
• demitasse cups
• Greek coffee (which is different than regular coffee)
• sugar (optional)
• water

• Prep Time: 2 minutes
• Cook Time: 5 minutes

• Total Time: 7 minutes

Preparation

1. Fill up however many demitasse cups will be needed with water.*
   
2. Pour the water from the cups into the briki.
   
3. Add 1 teaspoon of coffee per person
   
4. Add desired amount of sugar ( 1 to 1 is most popular)
   
5. Turn on heat.
   
6. Stir well to mix everything together, and don’t stir again after this step.
   
7. Continue watching it, and right before it starts to boil, lift it off the burner and back down, doing this a few times will create more foam (?a?µ???).
   

1. Next, If it’s just one serving, pour and enjoy. However, if there are multuple people having coffee, pour a little into each cup, then go back to the first, and fill them all up. We do this to spread the foam so it will be present in everyones cup.
   
2. Serve!
   

* For example, if you were serving 4 people that asked for metrios coffee (highly recommended), you would add 4 heaping teaspoons of Greek coffee and 4 regular teaspoons of sugar.