Sand coffee – Turkey’s Intangible Cultural Heritage has something special?

Coffee became a popular drink in Turkey around 800 years ago, when the ban on alcoholic beverages appeared. One of the countries with a thriving coffee industry at that time was Turkey with sand coffee. It is known that coffee brewed in the sand originated in Yemen, then became popular in the Middle East and slowly spread to North Africa and Eastern Europe.

Sand coffee has a unique way of processing.

Sand coffee has a very unique way of processing. Instead of heating directly on fire, after grinding the coffee, people will put the ground coffee into a small metal pot with a long handle called an ibrik / cezve and then bury it in a hot sand pan to heat the coffee. This large, hot pot of sand is the main factor that determines the uniqueness of this brew. The sand is both fine and has good heat retention, long heat and evenly distributed heat.

This cup with handle is a specialized tool for making coffee in the sand, called Cezve/Ibrik.

However, coffee does not have to be boiled. When the coffee begins to bubble and overflow into the mouth of the pot, the brewer must quickly lift the ibrik out of the hot sand, wait a while, and then put it back in the sand. The process of making sand coffee will take about 3 times like that. Each time the pot is lifted, a little more coffee is poured into the cup, and at the end, all the remaining water and grounds are poured.

Coffee is slowly boiled on a sand pan until it thickens.

So what’s so special about the taste of Turkish sand coffee? Many people say that the taste of sand coffee is very strong. The reason is because, the coffee beans used to make this type of coffee are inherently picky about delicious beans, then, the Turkish people also add some typical spices to cook with. Enjoying a cup of coffee boiled on Turkish sand, you will feel the strong and smooth coffee flavor as if enjoying the whole essence of coffee beans.

Oh, I forgot to tell you, sand coffee does not add milk, at most it only comes with a sugar cube, so if you don’t drink coffee, be prepared! In addition to other types of coffee, sugar is given after preparation, and sand coffee gives sugar from the moment it starts to boil.

When pouring sand coffee, people will also pour the grounds.

With a unique preparation and flavor, in 2013, Turkish sand coffee was recognized as an intangible world cultural heritage. However, with new waves of coffee, especially the 3rd wave of coffee, even in Turkey, this type of sand coffee is not too much anymore. But anyway, with a unique type of coffee like this, if possible, why can’t it be right?

Another interesting thing about sand coffee is that people also use coffee grounds made with sand coffee for fortune telling. Specifically, after drinking, people will turn the coffee cup upside down on the plate and let the water stick around the side of the cup and display the shapes. From the shape on the plate, people will tell about future events.

Đăng bởi: Nguyễn Hải Lý