Turkish Coffee - Persian Armenian Style

As a kid I used to see my mother drinking ghahveh turk (Turkish coffee) in small coffee cups with her friends and neighbors during their gatherings while talking about almost anything under the blue sky. They usually would meet for an hour or two in the morning in between sending their kids off to school, tidying up the house and preparing lunch for their husbands who would come back home for lunch. My mother learned to make Turkish coffee from her Armenian neighbor when she was just a young newlywed and had moved to a new home and a new town. This warm and friendly Armenian family with grown kids welcomed her to the neighborhood and their home. They eased her sense of loneliness and in them my mother found the family that she had left behind for marriage. That's where she had ghahveh turk for the first time and from then on she enjoyed drinking it as an occasional treat.

Over the years, my very dear Armenian friend Flora and I have developed a routine of meeting each other for breakfast, which is always at her place. Well she offers and I accept, you know they say never to refuse a good offer! She usually makes a delicious omelet with all kinds of vegetables with warm barbari bread, hot fresh brewed tea, and a tiny cup of  قهوه  ghahveh (coffee) at the end of our gathering just before I leave. Besides the good food and her warm hospitality we both have enjoyed our many deep an heartwarming conversations.                             

Having Turkish coffee at my friend Flora's house

Lighthearted fortune telling is a fun part of drinking Turkish coffee. We like to look for patterns and images on the walls of these tiny cups, anything that might resemble faces, birds, roads and valleys. 

 

Here's Flora's recipe for kofe/soorj:

Ingredients:
Serves 2

2 heaping teaspoons powdered roast coffee

2 cups water  (small-size coffee cups)

1 teaspoon sugar, may be adjusted to your liking 

Method:

1. In a small pot with a long handle combine finely powdered coffee, cool water and sugar. stir well.
2. Place the pot on medium heat and bring to a boil, watch closely as the coffee starts to rise in the pot and foam, remove the pot from heat and pour into each cup and serve.

Enjoy!