How To Make Coffee and Tea

We learned how to make Turkish coffee tonight. Our language tutor went to a store and got us finely grounded coffee, a coffee pot (cezve), and cups and saucers (fincan). He was pretty enthusiastic about getting us the coffee cup set and teaching us to make coffee. You can see in the pictures below how tiny the pot is and also the coffee cups. The coffee cups are generally small and decorative. Can you see the legs on the cups? 

Let's say you're making coffee for two. You take a teaspoon and put two heaping spoonfuls of coffee grounds and two of sugar in the pot. You fill a coffee cup (fincan) with water and pour it into the pot and repeat since you're making coffee for two. Heat the pot slowly until it boils but don't let it boil over. The coffee pot has a lip on it for pouring so pour into each cup about a third of the way so each drinker gets equal amounts of foam. Then fill both cups up. I read somewhere that after you boil the coffee the first time, you fill the cups with a third of coffee and then return the pot back to boil. When it boils the second time and it will boil quickly, you fill the cups with the remaining coffee which will have extra foam. How you boil the coffee can make a difference in the taste. 

And no, there is no filter. The grounds go into your cup. You simply wait for the dregs to float down to the bottom before drinking the coffee. This is why Turkish coffee is grounded into very fine powder. 

Some coffee connoisseurs will argue that boiling coffee is the worst way to drink coffee. Percolators basically boil coffee, too, although grounds are filtered. Drip coffee is acceptable but French press coffee is best. I take it however I can...

Tiny coffee pot

Teensy coffee cups and saucers - cups are about 2.5 inches tall

This country is supposedly famous for its coffee and style of making coffee but oddly enough, it's not as popular as tea.

Teapots and loose tea leaves

Tea cup and saucer - cup is also 2.5 inches tall

Tea is served in glasses like above. They're about 2.5" inches tall and you may also see some tea cups slightly bigger. They're generally glass and can also be decorative with gold filigree or etched glass. Some have handles. 

Did you notice two tea pots stacked up? Here's how you make tea. Put water in the big teapot to boil on the stove. Once it's boiling, fill the little teapot with boiling water from the big teapot. Fill the big teapot with water again and set it to boil again. While the big teapot is warming up to a boil, fill the little teapot with loose tea leaves (a packed teacup of leaves per person drinking) and let the tea leaves absorb water and settle. Set the little teapot on top of the big teapot so it will continue to be heated by the boiling water below. This creates a "tea concentrate." When the big teapot has come to a boil again, take the little teapot and fill each cup about a quarter or third full of the tea concentrate. Then fill each cup to the brim with boiling water from the big teapot. You might get a little bit of tea leaves at the bottom of your cup but that's normal. Add a cube or two of sugar as desired - or a teaspoonful if you only have loose sugar. As people get refills, they pour a little tea concentrate from the little teapot and then fill up the cup with hot water from the big teapot. 

In the South, you would put a pot of water in the stove (or a cup in microwave) and drop in a teabag or two to boil. That's your tea concentrate. Once it's ready, you pour the tea concentrate into a pitcher and fill it with water to the brim (and add enough sugar to make tea more like syrup). It's the same idea as above.

We all drink tea but we drink it and make it differently in all parts of the world....