("Ellinikos Kafes") is without doubt one of the simplest ways to make coffee. It is also known as Turkish coffee
. Coffee has a very old history... It travelled to Turkey from Yemen and from Turkey it became acknowledged in Greece. It became so well liked that individuals started calling it "Greek coffee" instead of Turkish (or Arabic) coffee. Typically Greek coffee gets roasted lighter than conventional 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 common 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 folks boil their coffee generally 3-4 times Greeks prefer boiling it 1-3 times.The blends used to make Turkish coffee have commonly many Brazilian coffees
, and in addition some Robusta or a "secret" ingredient so as to add some more flavour (Colombian coffee, Ethiopia Harrar or Yemen Mocha).So as to make Greek coffee we need a Turkish Coffee Pot (cezve/ibrik) XL 14 oz
a coffee pot also known as briki in Greece.This particular Greek coffee pot has a typical narrow top which creates an opportunity for the proper slow brewing of Turkish coffee plus the forming of famous crema-froth on top ("kaimaki").
Usually these pots were made of copper or brass, but presently they are mass produced using stainless steel that is definitely more durable.
Use the appropriate size coffee pot for making better coffee and better froth. If you are going to make two demitasse cups of coffee utilize a 2-cups size coffee pot. If you utilize a much bigger sized pot, crema forming will be much harder.
For one cup of coffee, load 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 vital to use low fire and cold water to extract more flavour from the coffee. Use a gas stove-topor preferably a common tabletop burner. After the mixture comes almost to a boil and the foam covers the top, pour it into a demitasse cup slowly and gradually. You must do this slowly to be able to retain the crema layer (froth) on top. If you fail to remove the coffee pot from fire in time, the coffee mixture will foam up immediately and it will get spilled all over the place!
Little suggestion if you want to make two cups or more
There is a classic trick used to maximize the froth on top of every demitasse cup
, which in essence requires taking the froth with a teaspoon from the coffee pot and adding it to each demitasse cup, prior to pouring the coffee.
