Copper is not chosen for a coffee pot only because it looks good. It carries heat around twenty times faster than stainless steel, so the base and the walls come up together, the grounds do not scorch at the bottom and the coffee rises evenly. That same speed leaves very little margin: one extra minute on the flame and it boils over.
Pick the right size
A large cezve will not do a small job. What builds the foam is the depth of the liquid in the pot, and a single cup poured into a four-cup pot just spreads across the bottom. In the workshop we cut the sizes like this:
- One cup: 90 to 120 ml
- Two cups: 150 to 200 ml
- Four cups: 300 to 350 ml
A Turkish coffee cup holds 60 to 70 ml. Measure with the cup itself and do not fill the pot to the brim. The liquid should stay below the point where the neck narrows, leaving roughly two fingers of space, because that is where the foam has to climb.
Water and measures
One cup of cold water per person, one heaped teaspoon of coffee, about 7 grams. Sugar goes in at the beginning; adding it after brewing collapses the foam. Start with hot water and the coffee cooks before it has properly dissolved, the taste stays flat and the foam never sets.
The grind matters as much as the pot. Turkish coffee has to be as fine as powder and freshly ground. Coarse coffee will not foam, and the cezve is not to blame.
When to stir
Put the coffee, the sugar and the cold water in the pot and stir before it goes on the heat, until no dry powder is left floating. Once the pot is on the flame, the spoon stays out. Every stir breaks up the foam that is starting to form, and it does not come back.
Heat and timing
Keep the flame at its lowest and inside the diameter of the base. In a copper pot the right brewing time is three to four minutes. Push the heat to go faster and you get large bubbles that die in the cup.
For the first two minutes a dark crema gathers on the surface, then bubbles start travelling in from the edge. The moment the rise reaches the neck of the pot, take it off. Do not wait for it to boil over, since coffee that has boiled over has already lost its foam.
Sharing the foam
Off the heat, spoon the foam into the cups, the same amount in each. Then return the pot to the flame for ten to fifteen seconds, let it lift once more, and pour the rest down the inside of the cup in a thin stream. Pouring fast into the middle flattens the foam you have just placed.
Warm the cups with hot water first. Cold porcelain kills the foam on contact.
Do not leave it standing
Copper stays hot after it leaves the flame. Coffee left in the pot keeps cooking, turns bitter and carries the grounds into the cup. Rinse the pot with warm water as soon as it is empty; dried grounds stick to the tin and you end up scraping them off.
No dishwasher. Detergent dulls the lining, hot drying darkens the copper, and washing by hand takes twenty seconds. Before the first use, wash the pot in hot soapy water and boil half a pot of water once, then throw it away.
