Musing By Moonlight

Photograph:  Tulumba.com

Lebanese coffee is served demitasse style in cups such as the one pictured here.

“We found a little side valley for lunch, and made a salad and cooked the coffee.

Letters From Syria, Freya Stark

Photograph:  Tulumba.com

Dark-roasted coffee beans are finely ground in beautiful etched-brass coffee-grinders.

“There was always Lebanese coffee, a sweet demitasse fragrant with cardamom, and a store-bought chocolate cake.  They seemed to view these cakes with nearly absurd delight, a dessert so different from the old, familiar baklava.  Something they did not have to make themselves.  The coffee, called Al-Qahway in the Arabic, was integral to all entertaining, a hallmark of Lebanese hospitality, which is legendary.”

And So Goes the World, Jamie Dedes, a novel in progress

Photograph:  Tulumba.com

Lebanese coffee is prepared in a narrow, long-handled brass pot, called a rakweh.

Lebanese Coffee, Al- Qahway, is generally served sweet (mazbuhtah), moderately sweet (wahsat), very sweet (helwa) or, at funerals, bitter (murrrah). The difference between traditional Turkish coffee and traditional Lebanese coffee is that the Lebanese is flavored with cardamom. If you prefer to have traditional Turkish coffee, follow the recipe, but leave out the cardamom.

 The equipment used to prepare and serve Lebanese coffee can be purchased on-line at Tulumba.com, in local Mediterranean groceries, and at some department stores. You will find the coffee pot in prouduct listings as “Turkish Coffee Pot.”  These pots come in several sizes from small enough to prepare coffee for just two people or large enough to prepare coffee for up to twelve people. Traditionally the pots were made of brass but you will also find them for sale in stainless steel, which may be easier to care for but which I find prosaic and unromantic.  I only use old brass pots. 

You must purchase dark-roasted coffee ground for Turkish coffee, which is so fine it’s like a powder. I use Peet’s Italian Roast. Only purchase as much coffee as you will use the same day.   It’s best when it’s most fresh.

This recipe is for two servings. Just multiply the ingredients to prepare the coffee for more people.  This a an easy prep process.  Don’t be intimidated.

The recipe

The ingredients:

For two demitasse cups, medium sweet:

water

2 tablespoons dark-roasted coffee, ground for Turkish Coffee

2 teaspoons organic sugar

2 cardamom pods

The preparation:

Pour two demitasse cupfulls of water into the rakweh.  Bring the water to a boil, remove from heat, and add the coffee and sugar. Put the pot back on the heat.  The coffee will foam up.  Remove from heat and let the foam subside.  Add the cardamom pods. Put the pot back on the heat and let it foam again.  Remove from heat.  Let the foam subside.  Do the process once more. Pour into cups.  Drink hot, hot, hot.