Café Turkí is taken for granted all through the Israeli day. I’m amused to see a current advertising campaign – billboards showing that little glass of muddy black liquid integrated into the graphics of the words “at work,” “at home,” “on vacation.” It seems superfluous. Nobody needs to be reminded to boil water for Turkish coffee, in any situation.
Sometimes, walking downtown at around 3:00 o’clock, I see the sales girls taking a break in the shop doorways – each one holding a cigarette between her fingers, sipping languidly from a glass of Turkish coffee. Go into any workshop – carpenter, metal worker, printer – and you’ll glimpse that same glass on the desk between the receipts and the phone.
Bank clerks and secretaries automatically offer to bring fellow workers coffee as they jump up to get their own caffeine fix. Visit friends in the late afternoon and most likely they’ll offer you cookies and a cup of that same Turkish coffee.
The comfort of the people. Big shots of course have their own little espresso machines installed in their carpeted offices – but they don’t disdain the little glass of black coffee either, if it’s offered.
Myself, I drink one cup a day, at breakfast, and that with milk, which isn’t traditional but is the way I like it.
Turkish coffee is traditionally made in a finjan – a special pot with a long handle, wider at the bottom so that most of the grounds stay behind when you pour the coffee out. In the Middle East, they’re for sale everywhere. But if you don’t have a finjan, you can make it in any small pot.
It can be coffee from any bean you like. The important thing is that it be finely ground. A coarse grind won’t give you the aroma and flavor of the real thing.
You’ll often smell cardamom in the Turkish coffee as you go past someone’s steaming cup. I’m not fond of it cardamom in coffee myself, but many like it very much. I’m including the spice in the recipe for you to use at your own discretion.
Turkish Coffee
Ingredients:
1 cup cold water
1 heaping teaspoon extra finely ground coffee – experiment with less or more, according to taste
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 teaspoons sugar
Method:
1. Bring water and sugar to a boil in the pot.
2. Remove from heat and add coffee and cardamom.
3. Return pot to the heat and allow the coffee to come to a boil, while stirring. Remove from the heat when the coffee foams.
4. Pour the coffee into a cup or glass. Drink immediately; the finest aroma is considered to be in the head of froth.
Follow me on Twitter 
Nice posting! I have periods when I like Turkish coffee and then times when I don’t like it.
It’s great to try different kinds of coffee. I have a weakness for a strong “cafe hafuch” too. But I try to keep coffee down to only one cup daily. I like it so much that I won’t drink it if I’m in a rush or on the phone. I keep a special, quiet 5 minutes for my one cup of coffee and savor every drop.
Darn it, I used to live in Brazil. You wouldn’t believe how much coffee people drink in Brazil.
I have a fetish for trying out the coffee at every new town / country I visit. And crass as it may seem, my favorite is instant coffee! My gavorite brand is Nescafe and even in black coffee, I like the ones that are infused with hazelnut and vanilla flavors. I like mine very milky, so even if I’m having black coffee, I dilute it quite a bit with whole cream milk. Isn’t it amazing how people the world over have so many different ways of drinking this versatile beverage?
Another one of my fondest memories associated with Israel! I’m an incurable caffeine addict, I drink it everywhere and in every form available but Turkish coffee’s my all-time favourite!!
Turkish coffee is a ubiquitous symbol of Israel. How many people love that commercial for “hot water, small glass?” When I flew to England this past winter to visit my daughter, half of one suitcase contained little bags of Turkish coffee for my half-Yemenite, half-Turkish, completely Israeli son-in-law.
I love my botz with cardamom, or as one friend joked, the hel with it.
I recently blogged about my own favorite coffee, but botz will always have a place in my heart, and my kitchen, and my day.
[...] Israeli can enjoy is the beloved national drink, café turkí (Turkish coffee). Israeli Kitchen observes: “I see the sales girls taking a break in the shop doorways – each one holding a cigarette [...]
Sabera, coffee is an amazing drink no matter which way you like it.
I wonder if housewives in South America still offer “leche con cafe” to the kids. I grew up drinking a cup of hot milk with a little coffee in it, every day at afternoon snacktime. The aroma of those early coffees lingers in my memory, bringing associations of Venezuela, heat, childhood and innocence … nobody thought of coffee as an addictive substance in those days.
Marta, I’m tickled to see how many people associate Cafe Turki with their visits to Israel.
Mirj,
I always say that when I get rich enough, I’ll have one of those espresso machines in my kitchen – but if I get rich enough I’ll probably still be making Turkish coffee in a finjan. No hel, but I do sometimes like a little Yemenite hawaij spice in the brew.
I was introduced to coffee and hawaiij at my son-in-law’s Shabbat Chatan. Nice, but I still prefer hel in my Turki.
As for what you said about leche con cafe, one of my daughters’ favorite things to order in a beit cafe is nes al basis chalav — instant coffee made with hot milk, not hot water.
Have you ever tried coffee laced with sweetened condensed milk? Yummy, and even yummier frozen. Check out http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/Iced-Coffee-113064, it’s one of my favorite summer treats.
For more wonderful coffee ideas, you might want to ready Immahlady’s blog post:
http://immahlady.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/speaking-of-an-iv-infusion-of-coffee/
Mirj, condensed milk always reminds me of Winnie the Pooh. I’ve done the cold-infusion coffee and it really is good; the bitterness you expect in a cup of coffee just isn’t there.
Hi Mimi,
Can’t tell you how much I enjoy your fabulous blog, along with the terrific photos. Thank you. Going to stop being so darn lazy & try some of this wonderful recipes.
You do make some amazing & yummy looking dishes!
All the best,
Linda
Denver, Colorado
Rishon-Le-Zion
Linda, thanks for stopping in at the Israeli Kitchen – and I’d be so pleased to hear that you’ve started cooking something out of here!
Coffee with cardamom?? WOW, it sounds great!!!!
Last time I was in Israel someone offered me a turkish coffee and I didn’t accept only becouse I thought that turkish coffee is only a stronger kind of coffee!! Poor me!!!! Now I want it!!
Aha, now you’ll have to come back for that wonderful cup of coffee, Zia Elle! And when you do, make sure to tell me you’re here.
As a special “oriental” treat by a US resident and frequent visitor to Israel is to offer your dinner guests at your home botz or Kafe Turki whereupon they might say (assuming they are no longer that young): “Oh, that’s way too strong (assuming they know what you are talking about), I only drink decaf.” And then you can say: “But it is decaf — imported from Israel.”