How to Brew in a Cezve
The oldest brewing method still in daily use, and the only one where the grounds stay in the cup. The foam on top is the whole measure of whether you did it right.
At a glance
- Coffee : water
- 1:10
- Active time
- 2 min
- Total time
- 6 min
- Makes
- 1 small cup
- Serve
- Hot, water alongside
- Kit
- Cezve
Ingredients
Note: Most burr grinders cannot reach this fineness. A dedicated Turkish hand mill will, and pre-ground Turkish coffee is widely sold and perfectly good.
Method
-
Measure with the cup
Fill the cup you intend to drink from with cold water and tip it into the cezve. That is the traditional measure and it is more reliable than guessing, because cezve sizes vary.
-
Add coffee and sugar, then stir
Float the coffee on the cold water, add sugar if you want it, and stir until everything is combined and no dry powder is left floating.
Sugar goes in now because once the brew is on the heat you must not stir it again. Stirring later collapses the foam.
-
Heat it as slowly as you can
Smallest burner, lowest flame. This should take three or four minutes, not one.
Slow heat is where the foam comes from. Rush it and you get a flat brown cup with a skin on top.
Heat 3 to 4 minutes -
Lift it when the foam rises
A thick tan foam will climb the sides. The instant it reaches the rim, lift the cezve off the heat and let it settle for a few seconds.
Put it back and repeat twice more. Three rises is the standard, and each one builds the foam.
Never let it boil over. A boiled cezve has no foam and tastes flat.
-
Pour the foam first
Tip a little of the foam into each cup before pouring the rest. Then pour slowly down the side so the grounds stay in the pot as long as possible.
Let the cup stand a minute. The grounds settle into a sludge at the bottom, and you drink down to it and stop.
Settle 1 minute
Why this works
This is not filtration, it is suspension. Nothing separates the grounds from the liquid, so the coffee has to be ground to a powder fine enough that it stays in the drink without feeling gritty, then settles out at the bottom when it stands. That is why the grind is finer here than anywhere else in coffee.
Starting cold is deliberate. The long slow climb from cold to just-below-boiling gives the water time to extract thoroughly at every temperature on the way up, and it is what develops the foam. Starting hot skips all of that.
The foam, köpük in Turkish, is a genuine quality marker, not decoration. It forms from carbon dioxide and dissolved solids coming out of suspension as the brew warms, and it needs slow heat and no agitation to hold together. Serving a cup without foam is considered a failure in most of the places this drink comes from.
Boiling destroys it. At a rolling boil the bubbles break, the aromatics are driven off, and the coffee goes bitter and flat. The three lifts are a way of getting as close to boiling as possible without ever arriving.
Variations
- Sade: no sugar.
- Orta: one teaspoon, the usual order.
- Şekerli: two, properly sweet.
- Spiced: a single cardamom pod crushed in with the coffee is common across the Levant and the Gulf.
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Questions
Why is there no foam on my coffee?
Too much heat, or you stirred it after it went on the stove. Turn the flame to its lowest and do not touch it once it is heating. A grind that is not fine enough also limits the foam.
Can I use espresso grind?
It will work after a fashion but the cup will be gritty and the foam thin. Turkish grind is considerably finer, closer to flour. Buying pre-ground Turkish coffee is the easy answer.
Do I drink the grounds?
No. They settle into a thick layer in the bottom of the cup. Drink down to it and leave it, which is also why the cup is traditionally served with a glass of water.
Cezve, ibrik or jezve?
The same pot. Cezve is Turkish, dzhezve across the Balkans, and ibrik is strictly a different vessel entirely but has become the common English name for this one.
Copper, brass or steel?
Copper is traditional and spreads heat most evenly, which matters a lot on a brew this small and this slow. Steel works on induction. Whatever you use, a narrow neck helps the foam.