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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
In Turkey, your coffee comes with a side of destiny
By Ali Halit Diker, CNN
Updated:
12:34 PM EDT, Tue August 26, 2025
Source: CNN
Calling Turkish coffee “just a drink” undersells it. It’s a
ritual, a conversation and, as arguably the ancestor of all modern
coffees, it’s a nearly 500-year-old piece of history, inscribed by
UNESCO on its list.
Coffee’s roots go back even further. , adjunct professor at Portland
State University, says a single coffee bean dating from the 12th
century has been found at an archaeological site in the United Arab
Emirates. By 1350, coffee-serving paraphernalia appeared in Turkey,
Egypt and Persia.
The story of Turkish coffee begins not in Turkey, but in Yemen. In the
15th century, Sufi mystics are said to have consumed it to stay awake
during long nights of prayer and devotions. When Sultan Süleyman,
known in Europe as Süleyman the Magnificent, seized Yemen in 1538,
coffee made its way into the Ottoman Empire. Within a year, the beans
had reached Constantinople — the ancient city that is now Istanbul.
In 1539, the Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa registered a property
that included a “kahve odası,” or coffee room, according to ,
Harvard professor and author of an academic paper about coffee: “How
Dark is the History of the Night, How Black the Story of Coffee, How
Bitter the Tale of Love: The Changing Measure of Leisure and Pleasure
in Early Modern Istanbul.”
By the 1550s, the first “kahvehanes,” or coffeehouses were
appearing in İstanbul, chronicled by historian İbrahim Peçevi in his
book, “History of Peçevi.” The beverage’s new popularity quickly
reshaped cultural life. The Ottoman of preparing coffee — shared with
Greece and rooted in Ethiopia — became the hallmark of traditional
Turkish coffee. As gastronomy researcher explains, the fundamental
difference between Turkish and other coffees is that cezve-ibrik is
essentially cooking; it’s not brewed, but “cooked” in water like
a soup, producing an unfiltered drink.
Coffeehouses stirred controversy. Religious scholars and political
leaders across Asia and Europe viewed them as places for subversive
activities and idle chatter. Mecca’s governor, Hayır Bey, banned
coffee in the city in 1511, an edict that would last 13 years, due to
concern it would lead to radical ideas. Ottoman sultans repeatedly shut
down cafes over similar fears. They never completely vanished though.
Even in 17th-century England, Charles II tried to shut them, suspecting
“anti-royalist sedition and treasonous conversation is happening in
those coffee shops,” says London tour guide .
Reading the tea leaves (in the coffee grounds)
Turkish coffee is “more than a beverage,” says , assistant
professor of instruction at the University of South Florida and a
native of Safranbolu, in northern Turkey. Doğan calls it a
“bridge” that facilitates sharing — both in sorrow or joy.
Today, coffee is the unofficial catch-up drink in Turkey. As in many
countries, when two friends who have been apart for a while want to
have a chat, they say, “Let’s have coffee.” In Turkey, that means
something more specific: “Come over and I’ll make you a cup of
Turkish coffee.”
The preparation ritual is precise and meticulous, involving a small,
long-handled pot called a cezve placed over heat, preferably hot coals
or sand. The finest coffee grounds are cooked slowly to release a rich
flavor and create a beautiful top layer of foam, considered a mark of
quality.
A proper Turkish coffee must be served hot and with foam intact,
alongside a glass of water and a piece of lokum, or Turkish delight.
The water cleanses the palate, while the lokum balances the drink’s
bitterness.
Coffee etiquette is equally important. Although served in small cups,
it’s to be drunk calmly and slowly, not rushed like an espresso. This
gives the grounds time to settle and keeps them at the bottom of the
cup.
When the cup is empty, it’s time for the ritual of tasseography, or
coffee-cup reading. The cup is inverted onto its saucer, left to cool
and then shapes and symbols perceived in the leftover grounds are
“read” for meaning. These are mostly made up on the fly, but a fish
typically means luck; a bird indicates a journey.
While fortune-telling is generally discouraged in Islamic culture,
coffee-cup reading is viewed as a “playful, symbolic
interpretation” and a “communal ritual,” says Kylie Holmes,
author of “.”
Doğan agrees: “We do it for fun.” Tasseography is an act of
storytelling, Doğan says she often spends an hour on a reading,
weaving narratives and focusing on positive outcomes because people
“enjoy hearing good things about themselves.”
Turkey’s coffee rituals also find their way into other national
traditions. During courtship, a prospective bride prepares and serves
Turkish coffee to the groom and his family. As a test of his character,
she adds a generous amount of salt to the groom’s coffee. If he
drinks without complaint, he proves his patience, maturity — and
worthiness.
From the Bosphorus to the Thames
Coffee quickly moved westward. Venetians likely encountered it first
through trading connections. But there’s a clearer link between
Turkey and London’s original coffee scene: Daniel Edwards, a Levant
Company merchant who lived in Smyrna, modern-day İzmir, brought his
servant Pasqua Rosée to London. In 1652, Rosée opened what is
believed to be the city’s first coffeehouse in St. Michael’s Alley.
For a penny, customers could drink as much as they like while joining
the lively conversation. Much like Turkey’s “kahvehanes,” these
“penny universities” were hubs of news, politics and, at times,
dissent. Specifically, they were places of male dissent. Women
weren’t allowed to drink coffee in either culture, but in London
women could at least work in a coffeehouse.
‘Americans drink it to the last drop’
Despite its rich history and cultural significance, Turkish coffee
never had the global brand recognition of espresso. Sever blames a
generational gap. “We’ve confined Turkish coffee to a ritual, and
for young people, it’s now seen as something you only drink with your
parents,” she says.
She says innovation is necessary for global appeal. Doğan disagrees,
insisting on traditions must be protected.
Others are working hard to introduce Turkish coffee to the world.
organizes Turkish coffee workshops in London while in New York, Uluç
Ülgen — — runs the Turkish Coffee Room, offering theatrical
sessions of coffee drinking and fortune-telling.
“Despite Turkish coffee’s bitter taste, Americans drink it to the
last drop for the cup-reading performance,” he says.
Where to find a good coffee in Istanbul
To find a genuine coffee experience in Turkey, Kapusuz advises finding
a venue where it’s prepared slowly in a cezve, preferably over hot
sand and served hot with thick foam, plus lokum and water.
In Istanbul, Kapusuz recommends . Sever suggest on İstiklal Street and
in the city’s Egyptian Bazaar. For a modern twist, she suggests in
Kadıköy.
Coffee-cup readings can be found in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet district
or near Tünel in Beyoğlu, but Doğan suggests a more personal
approach, as the experience is more about storytelling and human
connection than divination. That might simply mean asking a
coffee-drinking local for help to find the fascinating story waiting at
the bottom of a cup.
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