Greek coffee – what you need to know

The greek coffee is more a social tradition I would say than the actual coffee drinking. It is pronounced ehleekneekhOs kahfEss in greek.

What you need:

• greek coffee (the grounds for greek coffee are very very fine – the are like flour)
• sugar – optional
• camping stove gas – optional – you can prepare it also on a stove
• traditional small greek pot
• espresso cup – which is actually called: demitasse cup (60-90ml) and the small plate that comes with it is called saucer

Since you need to add the sugar during the preparation of the coffee, you need to specify from the beginning how much sugar you would like to have in your coffee. Here the types and you need to specify both points before ordering a greek coffee: the quantity and the sugar!

Depending on the size:

• Single: monOhs
• Double: theplOhs

Depending on the sugar:

• Without sugar – skEhtohss – 1 full teaspoon coffee
• A bit of sugar – meh ohlEEghee – 1 full teaspoon coffee + 1/2 teaspoon sugar (this is not that common)
• Semi sweet – mEhtreeohss – 1 full teaspoon coffee + 1 teaspoon sugar
• Sweet – ghleekOhss – 1 full teaspoon coffee + 2 teaspoons sugar
• Strong sweet coffee – vahrEEghleekohss – 2 full teaspoons coffee + 3 teaspoons sugar

Further important words:

• BrEEkee: The traditional pot where the greek coffee is prepared
• GazAhkee: camping stove gas
• KaeemAhkee: the foam of the greek coffee
• kafenEEo: the traditional coffee house, where in the past only men were mostly there. Nowdays normally you get really better greek coffee there than in the trendy and modern coffee places (called cafetEreea), that have all different kind of coffees. In the kafenEEo these days you will see mostly old people and people that like good greek coffee.
• ChOvolee: it is the place, where the greek coffee was traditionally prepared. This was a tray with sand on top of hot coals and they were placing the brEEkee inside the hot sand to prepare it.

There are slightly different ways to prepare it. Here is our way.

Steps

• Add the water in the breekee and turn on the fire – medium
• Add the sugar if you wish and stir
• Add the coffee and stir until the coffee is dissolved and that was it. No stirring anymore
• Leave the coffee now like it is and do not let it unattended. If it boils too much is not nice to drink
• Observe the coffee surface and you will see it “growing”
• You must remove it from the top before the coffee boils. You want it only to grow in the breekee and remove it before you see the surface “dancing”
• Some people like us, serve half of the coffee in the cup and then let the rest of the coffee “grow” once more before they poor it into the cup like in the video:
• Serve it with a glass of cold water! Optional is a “spoon-sweet” dessert
• IMPORTANT INFO 1! Let the coffee a couple of minutes, so that the grounds of coffee will settle on the bottom of the cup. You do not want to drink the grounds!
• IMPORTANT INFO 2! The fine coffee grounds are in our cup (the coffee is not filtered) – on the bottom and you should not drink them. The texture is like sand and it is not that nice. So pay attention to your last sips.

Extra Info

• After drinking the coffee, there are people that believe, that you turn the cup upside down on the small cup plate, you wait a bit and then in the cup, from the shapes that the coffee grounds made on the walls of the cup, the future of the person that drunk the coffee can be told.
• If you are in Greece and you would like to prepare the greek coffee yourselves, it is really recommended to go to a coffee, where they sell coffee and get some freshly grounded coffee. The difference is huge.
• It is being said, that it is better to make the greek coffee always for each person separately, cause it tastes better. There is no logical explanation on this. If you want to prepare greek coffee for more than 1 person with a bigger brEEkee, then do not fill the 1st cup till it´s full. Divide the kaeemAkhee to all the cups and then fill the cups till full.

I have tried turkish, croatian (they added also milk – never seen this in Greece) and serbian and they are very similar, even if I must say the had a different aroma. The same goes I guess with all the Balkans and Cyprus as well!