Greek coffee ("Ellinikos Kafes") is one of the simplest procedures to prepare coffee. It is also recognized as Turkish coffee. Coffee has a immeasurably old history... It traveled to Turkey from Yemen and from Turkey it became acquainted in Greece. It became for that reason fashionable that people started naming it "Greek coffee" instead of Turkish (or Arabic) coffee. Typically Greek coffee gets roasted lighter than customary Turkish coffee. Another difference is that Greeks hardly add spices to their coffee.
The basic ingredient needed for a savory 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 customary Greek coffee grinder or an original high quality burr grinder. Like Turkish coffee, in order to prepare Greek coffee you basically bring a matrimony of water and ground coffee almost to boil. While Turkish people boil their coffee typically 3-4 times, Greeks prefer boiling it 1-3 times.
The blends used to formulate Turkish coffee have many times a high percentage of Brazilian coffees, and also some Robusta or a "secret" ingredient to add more than a few more flavour (Colombian coffee, Ethiopia Harrar or Yemen Mocha).In order to compose Greek coffee we need a coffee pot known as briki in Greece. This special Greek coffee pot has an exclusive narrow top which facilitates the regular slow brewing of Turkish coffee and the forming of infamous cream-froth on top ("kaimaki"). Traditionally these pots were made of copper or brass, but nowadays they are mass produced using stainless steel which is more lasting.
Use the appropriate size coffee pot to prepare excellent coffee and superior froth. If you are going to get ready two demitasse cups of coffee try using a 2-cups size coffee pot. If you use a much larger sized pot, cream making 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 heat.
It is very important to use low heat and cold water to draw out more flavor from the coffee. Use a gas stove-top or preferably a customary tabletop burner. Once the mingle comes almost to a boil and the foam covers the top, pour it into a demitasse cup adagio. You must do this slowly in order to keep hold of the cream layer froth on top. If you fail to eliminate the coffee pot from fire on time, the coffee mixture will foam up immediately and it will get spilled everywhere on the floor and counter!
There is an ancient trick used to maximize the froth on top of each demitasse cup, which basically involves taking the froth with a teaspoon from the coffee pot and thus adding it to every demitasse cup, prior to pouring the coffee. Traditionally the coffee is served using ornamental discs, in little demitasse cups made of fine porcelain. You can also pair Greek coffee with a palatable desert like cookies ("koulourakia"), "halva" or "baklava".
Some persons bring the coffee to boil only once. Others prefer to boil it twice and there are also more than a few individuals who claim that bringing the coffee to boil three times is the absolute minimum. Another problem is the stirring. Several people stir coffee, water and sugar only in the beginning and numerous others stir continuously till the end to produce more froth.
