Coffee

I have a dotty old uncle who lives alone and drinks his coffee right out of the coffee pot. He doesn’t bother to pour his coffee into a cup…maybe washing a coffee cup just makes more work…who knows?

Most people, however, prefer to drink their coffee out of a coffee cup or a coffee mug. It is the civilized thing to do.

When people buy place settings of fine china of just a set of everyday dishes, the thing that determines their choice is the shape and size of the cup. After all, plates, bread plates, soup or cereal bowls, saucers, and other pieces in a place setting or set of dishes are all pretty much the same. They may come in varying sizes and the patterns are different, but still they are all basically the same design. Only the cups are different. The size and shape of the cup and the handles on the cups is most often the determining factor is the selection of dinner ware.

There are different coffee cups for serving different coffees, as well. Most “regular” coffee cups hold between 6 and 8 ounces of coffee. But there are demitasse cups that only hold between 2 and 4 ounces and big coffee mugs that hold up to 20 ounces. Latte coffee cups must be large enough to hold the frothy milk.

Coffee cups can be purchased separately, or as part of a set of dishes or a piece in a place setting of china. Coffee cups don’t all have handles either. There are double-walled cups without handles that are used to serve espresso or cappuccino.

The thickness of the wall of the coffee cup is the determining factor of how long coffee will stay hot in a coffee cup. Remember those old thick-walled white cups of roadside coffee house fame? Coffee would stay hot in those things all the way through the eating of a meal and beyond. On the other hand, coffee in a delicate fine china cup will only stay hot a very few minutes.

CoFFee provides detailed information on Coffee, Coffee Makers, Gourmet Coffee, Coffee Shops, Coffee Beans, Coffee Cup and more.
For more information visit as on http://coffee.explore-me.com

Author: Miodrag Trajkovic
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Greek coffee (“Ellinikos Kafes”) is one of the simplest ways to make coffee. It is also known as Turkish coffee. Coffee has a very old history…

It traveled to Turkey from Yemen and from Turkey it became known in Greece. It became so popular that people started calling it “Greek coffee” instead of Turkish (or Arabic) coffee.

Differences

Usually Greek coffee gets roasted lighter than traditional Turkish coffee.

Another difference is that Greeks rarely add spices to their coffee.

How to make Greek coffee

The basic ingredient needed for a delicious Greek coffee is fresh roasted coffee, ground to an extra fine coffee powder (finer than espresso). You can also grind you own coffee beans using a traditional Greek coffee grinder or a modern high quality burr grinder.

Like Turkish coffee in order to make Greek coffee you basically bring a mixture of water and ground coffee almost to boil. Although Turkish people boil their coffee usually 3-4 times Greeks prefer boiling it 1-3 times.

The blends used to make Greek coffee have usually a high percentage of Brazilian coffees, and also some Robusta or a “secret” ingredient to add some more flavour (Colombian coffee, Ethiopia Harrar or Yemen Mocha).

In order to make Greek coffee we need a coffee pot known as briki in Greece. This special Greek coffee pot has a characteristic narrow top which facilitates the correct slow brewing of Turkish coffee and the forming of the famous “kaimaki”, which is basically the crema-froth on top of the coffee.

Traditionally these pots were made of copper or brass, but nowadays they are mass produced using stainless steel which is more durable. (I still prefer the brass ibriks for lots of reasons…). Use the proper size coffee pot to make better coffee and better froth. If you are going to make two demitasse cups of coffee use a 2-cups size coffee pot. If you use a much larger sized pot, crema forming will be much harder.

For one cup of coffee, fill the coffee pot with one demitasse cup of cold water, 1-2 teaspoons of Greek coffee, sugar to taste, and then put the pot on low fire. It is very important to use low fire and cold water to extract more flavor from the coffee. Use a gas stove-top or preferably a traditional tabletop burner.

Once the mixture comes almost to a boil and the foam covers the top, pour it into a demitasse cup slowly. You must do this slowly in order to retain the crema layer (froth) on top. If you fail to remove the coffee pot from fire on time, the coffee mixture will foam up quickly and it will get spilled everywhere! Be careful to not let this happen!

Small tip if you want to make two cups or more

There is an old trick used to maximize the froth on top of every demitasse cup, which basically involves taking the froth with a teaspoon from the coffee pot and then adding it to each demitasse cup, before pouring the coffee.

Serving

Traditionally the coffee is served using decorative discs, in small demitasse cups made of fine porcelain.

You can also pair Greek coffee with a nice desert like cookies (“koulourakia”), “halva” or “baklava”.

Things to notice

Some people bring the coffee to boil only once. Other people prefer twice and there are also some people who argue that bringing the coffee to boil three times is the absolute minimum.

Another point of argument is the stirring. Some people stir coffee, water and sugar only in the beginning and some other stir continuously till the end to make more froth.

Personal opinion

I prefer to stir the coffee continuously till the end and I also let it foam up twice.

“Why?” you may ask. It is just my taste! You can experiment and find what you like best.

What’s most important is the freshness and the quality of your Greek coffee.

Karolos Tsiligirian is the author of the “Fresh Coffee Encyclopedia” and the owner of FreshCoffeeShop.com & CoffeeEbooks.com

Author: Karolos Tsiligirian
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Turkish coffee is one of the simplest ways to make delicious coffee. This is a guide to help you avoid the most common mistakes when making Turkish coffee.

Using the wrong proportion

One of the most common mistakes is using the wrong proportion of coffee to water. If you use too much water or too much coffee the result will not be drinkable! The most common rule is one demitasse cup of water with one teaspoon of coffee. If you want your coffee strong you can use two teaspoons but don’t use more…

Using the wrong grind

In order to make Turkish coffee you must use very fine ground coffee. If you use coarser coffee then you will not be able to extract the delicate coffee flavours. You will also fail to create the special coffee foam on top which is highly prized in many Middle East and Balkan countries. This special foam resembles the espresso crema and it is known as kaimaki in Greece. So, make sure that you use very fine ground coffee.

If you want to grind your own coffee, use a high quality burr grinder (manual or electrical). You can also use a mortar and pestle.

Boiling coffee

You must use a Turkish coffee pot to prepare the coffee. Stir the coffee with the sugar a bit to help them mix with the water.

After you light up the fire and you start heating the coffee in the pot, it is very important to watch carefully as the coffee comes slowly to a boil. It’s imperative that you don’t let it boil!

If it boils then the coffee will get bitter and flat tasting. In order to make delicious Turkish coffee, you must stop the heating when the coffee mixture comes ALMOST to a boil.

At this special moment, the coffee foam forms a ring on top. This foam ring slowly increases in size, closes the gap on top and then the coffee starts rising. As soon as the foam ring closes the gap on top and starts rising out must stop the heating. If you fail to do this it will boil and the flavour will get destroyed. So, just be careful and take it slow!

Bringing to boil more than 3 times

There are some people who prefer to bring the coffee to almost boil more than once. I find this a loss of time and sometimes it can also lead to a loss of quality. Bringing the coffee to almost boil more than 3 times is an exaggeration!

Adding sugar after the boiling

If you want your coffee medium sweet add one teaspoon of sugar for every teaspoon of coffee. If you want your coffee sweet double the amount of sugar. It is important to put the sugar before the heating, to optimize the flavour. The sugar melts and becomes one with the coffee in your mouth.

Using the wrong size pot

In order to make 2 demitasse cups of coffee use a coffee pot (ibrik or cezve) that holds 3 demitasse cups of coffee. You can also measure the capacity of the pot using water. The extra cup is counted to facilitate the whole stirring and foaming process.

Now, you may ask:

“Why can’t I use a 5 cup size coffee pot to make 2 cups of coffee? The bigger the better!”

Unfortunately it’s not like that!

You see… if you use a much bigger coffee pot this makes the coffee foam creation rather hard. The shape of the coffee pot (conical) facilitates the creation of a special oven like effect that makes the foaming much easier and more precise.

If you use a very big coffee pot then it will be hard to make a nice foam on top of the Turkish coffee. Just try it and you will see the difference!

Using hot water to make it faster

There are many professionals who start with hot water in order to make Turkish coffee faster. Actually they have big boilers and when a customer asks for a cup of Turkish coffee, they pour hot water from the boiler inside their coffee pot, they put coffee and sugar and they boil the whole thing as fast as possible!

The result as you may guess is the destruction of all the delicate coffee flavour. This is because of basic physics and chemistry… hot water (90 C degrees or higher) interacts with the coffee and then as if this is not enough you boil the coffee some more!!!

So just use cold coffee and don’t rush. Your taste buds will thank you!

Pouring fast and sloppily

When the heating is done pour the coffee slowly in order to retain the foam on top. If you do it quickly the foam may break apart.

Not letting the coffee settle a bit after serving

After you serve the coffee, the small coffee grounds float everywhere in the cup. Just let them settle for a couple of minutes (except if you like eating coffee )

Not taking enough time to enjoy!

This is in my opinion the greatest mistake of all. We live in very quickly paced timed, full of stress.

Why should you also be in a hurry when drinking your Turkish coffee? Relax! Take a small sip, lay back and enjoy! Share what you learned with your friends and offer them a cup of coffee too, won’t you?

Enjoy!

Karolos Tsiligirian is the author of the “Fresh Coffee Encyclopedia” and the owner of FreshCoffeeShop.com

Author: Karolos Tsiligirian
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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