Turkish Coffee Delight
Years ago, I walked into a Turkish coffee house and ordered up some real Turkish coffee, made by the owner, who was born and raised in Turkey. The coffee was so bitter and burnt that I nearly spit it on the floor. Today I decided to give Turkish coffee another try, but this time I used our Majestic Medium roast beans. It was so good and so smooth, without a bit of bitterness, that I made a second cup with our Delectable Dark roast. Let me tell you, with our beans, this ain't just any Turkish coffee, it's truly a Turkish Coffee Delight.
Start With The Right Beans
Turkish coffee is strong. With the wrong beans, it'll knock you on your butt and kill your tastebuds in the process. Unless you like nasty bitter coffee, then you'll need a super smooth coffee bean. Lucky for you, we at Lake City Coffee specialize in coffee beans that are smooth as silk.
100% of our beans are sourced from the Tarrazu region of Costa Rica, which is notorious for smooth (non-bitter) coffee beans. Each year, we taste test about two dozen beans from this region in search of beans that are smooth as silk with a complex flavor balance of chocolate, nut, and cherry. This year, we knocked it out of the park with the best, most sophisticated beans that we've every sourced, perfect for a Turkish Coffee Delight.
Smooth Roasted
One of the key factors of great coffee is keeping as much of the oils within the bean as possible. When roasters over-roast the beans, they boil off most if not all of the oils. Those oils are what contain the bioflavonoids, antioxidants, caffeine, and flavor. Unfortunately, a vast majority of the industrial coffee companies roast their beans hot-n-fast, thus leaving behind very little of the coffee bean's oils. Thus you're basically drinking carbon. You might as well save some money and buy a bag of Kingsford charcoal and brew that.
Here at Lake City Coffee, I roast low-n-slow, thus preserving as much of the coffee bean's oils as humanly possible. That's why our coffee is smoother, more flavorful, and will create a "crema" like you've never seen. Most people will select our Delectable Dark, which is barely dark. I personally prefer the medium roast.
The Fresher The Roast - The Better The Coffee
When I walked into that Turkish Coffee House, I asked the owner when the beans were roasted. He didn't have a clue. I checked the coffee can and not surprisingly, there was no roast date. As a matter of fact, a vast majority of coffee sold in the US does not have a roast date on it.
Here's another fact. After roasting, all coffee starts going stale and bitter in less than 30 days. I know of only one way to slow down the process of roasted coffee going stale and bitter. To find my secret, read my article under our site's FAQ tab titled "How To Keep Roasted Coffee Fresh For Months".
We "Roast To Order". That means that early every Tuesday morning, we tally up our orders for the week and begin roasting and shipping. In fact, our coffee is so fresh that the bags are still warm when they're put into your USPS Priority Mail package. With roasted coffee that fresh, your Turkish Coffee Delight will likely blow your socks off.
Grinding Your Turkish Coffee Delight
What you're looking for is coffee grounds that are as fine as possible, preferably as fine as flour. The operative word there is "preferably". It's not essential to have your grounds "that" fine.
I have a slew of grinders, from dirt cheap to expensive. In this case, my $45 electric burr grinder comes close enough to "fine" as I need.
If you've got more money than brains, then knock yourself out and buy a $450 grinder. It'll make about 2% difference in the taste of your Turkish Coffee Delight.
How To Brew Turkish Coffee
Trust me, this is the easiest way to brew coffee that I've ever encountered.
- Measure out 10:1 ratio of water to coffee. That's just a place to start. You will want to experiment by adjusting this ratio based on your personal tastes.
- Grind your whole bean coffee to as fine a grind as you can get it. Don't stress over this. If it's not fine enough, you'll just have more sediment in the bottom of your pot and your cup. No big deal.
- Put your fine coffee grounds into your Turkish pot or whatever small pot that you'd like. You don't need a Turkish pot. But then again, you can get a stainless steel one for $15. Or you can go fancy. Typically, Turkish coffee pots are made of copper on the outside and tin on the inside.
- Mix your coffee grounds and water with a spoon or cooking whisk. I use a whisk. It's just easier.
- Put your coffee pot on the stove and turn to medium or medium-high heat.
- Half way to the point of boiling, the top of your water/coffee will create a thick crust. Most people don't touch it. I on the other hand give it a short stir at this point.
- Magic Point - As the water starts to slowly boil, it'll foam up and it'll foam up real fast. So, watch this magic like a hawk waiting for a rabbit to come out of its hole. Let it foam an inch or so.
- Slowly pour half of the coffee into your cup.
- Put the pot back on the stove. It'll start foaming up again in a few seconds. Let it get another inch or so of foam.
- Slowly pour all but the bottom 1/4 inch of coffee into your cup, leaving behind the sediment.
- Optionally: At any point along this process, you can add a little sugar and/or ground cardamon.
Sediment
You ARE going to get sediment in the bottom of your pot and the bottom of your cup. So what? Don't sweat it. Just don't pour off the bottom 1/4 inch of coffee from your pot. And don't drink the bottom 1/4 inch of coffee from your coffee cup. No big deal.
Look. Americans are the only people on the planet that thinks that coffee ground sediment is bad. Everyone else deals with it just fine. Besides, Americans are notorious for making bad coffee. So, don't get your panties in a wad because there's a little sediment in your coffee. Just don't agitate your pot or cup or yourself.
Lake City Coffee
One of the fun things about our business is that we get to meet a lot of fun cool people. Along with those new friends, we learn a lot about coffee. Our coffee brewing options has really grown. This article about Turkish Coffee was inspired by a friend who recently introduced me to "good" espresso. I figured if espresso could be rich, tasteful, AND smooth, then why not Turkish coffee.
Honestly, without our super smooth, non-bitter, super fresh, coffee beans, I doubt that you're likely to find a Turkish coffee anywhere near as good as this. So, step out on the wild side for a moment and give Turkish coffee a try. I think you'll be as surprised as I was.
Enjoy!
