How to Make Turkish Coffee

Turkish coffee is the only method on this site with no filter at all. Coffee ground to a powder is mixed with cold water, and usually sugar, in a small long-handled pot called a cezve (often sold as an ibrik), then heated slowly until a thick foam rises. It is poured, grounds and all, into small cups, and the grounds settle to the bottom while you wait.

It is also a tradition in its own right: UNESCO added Turkish coffee culture and tradition to its list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2013.

The one real tradeoff is the grind. Turkish coffee needs a powder finer than espresso, which most home grinders cannot make. Coffee sold pre-ground for Turkish coffee solves that, at some cost to freshness.

Start with this recipe

For one cup. For more, see the scaling table below.

1. Measure 70g of cold water into the cezve. The traditional measure is the cup you will serve it in.
2. Add 7g of coffee, ground extra fine: about one heaped teaspoon. Add sugar now if you want it; see sugar goes in the pot.
3. Stir until no dry powder floats on top. This is the only time you stir.
4. Put the pot on the lowest heat your stove can manage. It should take 3–4 minutes to heat through, so do not rush it. A dark, fine foam will gather and start to climb.
5. As the foam rises toward the rim, and before it boils, lift the pot off the heat. Spoon a little foam into the cup.
6. Return the pot to the heat until the foam rises once more, then pour slowly into the cup, keeping the pot low so the foam survives.
7. Wait 1–2 minutes for the grounds to settle. Serve with a glass of water, and do not stir.

Leave the last sip. The bottom of the cup is a layer of grounds, not coffee.

Why it must never boil

The foam is the prize, and a rolling boil destroys it. Boiling also pushes the cup toward bitter and harsh, the same over-extraction every other method on this site warns about.

Slow heat matters for a second reason. In Turkish coffee, the heating is the brew: there is no steep time or drip time to adjust, so the minutes it takes to reach the foam are the minutes the coffee spends extracting. Three or four minutes on gentle heat gives a full, rounded cup and a proper foam. Rushing it on a high flame gives the coffee less time and the foam less chance to form.

The grind is the hard part

Turkish coffee is ground to a powder that clings together, finer than espresso. It sits at the extra-fine end of the grind scale.

• Most burr grinders cannot get there. Many stop at espresso-fine, and a grinder set as fine as it goes is usually still too coarse.
• A dedicated Turkish hand mill can. These are built for exactly this job.
• Pre-ground is the practical answer for most people. Buy coffee sold for Turkish coffee, or ask a roaster to grind it to Turkish. Buy small amounts, because powder-fine coffee loses its aroma quickly; see how to store coffee beans.

Sugar goes in the pot

Turkish coffee is sweetened while it brews, not afterward, because stirring the finished cup would lift the grounds. Decide before you start. These are the traditional ways to ask for it:

Scaling

Keep the ratio at one heaped teaspoon, or 7g, per 70g of water.

Cezves are sold by the number of cups they make, so use one that matches your batch. A pot much too large spreads the coffee thin and the foam struggles to build; one too small boils over.

Fix the cup

The Brew Compass turns any of these into one change for the next pot.

Serving it

Serve Turkish coffee in small cups with a glass of water on the side, and often something sweet, such as Turkish delight. In Turkey, the grounds left in the cup are sometimes turned out onto the saucer and used to tell fortunes.

If you like the strength but not the sediment, a Moka Pot or espresso makes a similarly concentrated cup with a filter between you and the grounds. For another small, strong cup with its own tradition, try Vietnamese coffee.