The original cup of coffee and how to make it.

The first coffee drinker was an eleventh-century Ethiopian goat herder. He shared it with some Ethiopian monks and pretty soon it is was the drink of choice in the Ottoman Empire. The way coffee is made today in the Balkans has not changed much in almost a thousand years.

Turkish/Bosnian, Serbian and Greek coffee.

To make the coffees use a džezve—a saucepan will do—and a finely ground Turkish blend of coffee. All the Balkanistas use a Turkish blend of coffee, all have an obsession with the foam on top of the coffee, and they all serve their coffee in espresso cups—the more ornate the better. What makes a Greek coffee different from a Serbian coffee, or a Serbian coffee different from a Turkish coffee is the preparation and a little national pride.

A Turkish blend was originally a blend of dark, and medium or light roasts from Yemen and Ethiopia. These days Brazilian beans are used in the packaged blends. So if you want to be authentic, and love your coffee, get yourself down to the Algerian Coffee Stores on Old Compton Street where you will find Yemeni Matari and a variety of Ethiopian beans. Create your own blend of beans by mixing the two. If you’re lazy, they sell a Turkish blend called ‘Gourmet Mulatte’.

Turkish/Bosnian Coffee

4 Persons

Measure out four espresso cups of cold water and pour into your džezve. Add four teaspoons of sugar to the dzezve and without stirring bring to the boil. Pour off and keep a third of the water. Reduce the heat to medium. Add four heaped teaspoons of coffee to the dzezve stir and return to the heat. When the coffee begins to foam around the edges remove the dzezve from the heat. Rest for fifteen seconds, and return to the heat. Once it begins to foam again remove from the heat, scoop off the foam and share among four espresso cups. Return dzezve to heat. This time, let the foam rise towards the lip of the dzezve and then remove from the heat. Add the hot water that was set aside earlier to the dzezve and pour out your finished coffee into your espresso cups. Serve with a glass of water.

Serbian Coffee

4 Persons

Serbian coffee is prepared individually. In other words, if you were preparing four cups of coffee you would need to have four one espresso cup size džezves—available online.

Add an espresso cup of water, and a teaspoon of sugar to each of your džezves. Bring džezves to the boil. Add a heaped teaspoon of coffee to each dzezve and return to a medium heat. Follow the method above for making Turkish/Bosnian coffee from this point on, but don’t scoop off the foam this time.

Serve džezves on a tray with four coffee cups, four teaspoons, a jug of water and glasses. Your guests can then pour their coffees, saving the foam with a spoon. A drop of water is added to help the coffee grinds settle and then the cups are capped with a spoonful of saved foam.

Greek Coffee

4 persons

Measure out exactly four cups of cold water and pour into your džezve. Add four teaspoons of sugar and four heaped teaspoons of coffee to the džezve. Stir and heat mixture on a low heat. When the coffee begins to foam remove from the heat for a few seconds and return to the heat, repeat process three times. Distribute coffee amongst cups by half filling the cups and then returning to each cup and filling to the lip making sure each cup has the all-important foam. Serve with glasses of water.