GREEK COFFEE

Greek coffee is a kind of coffee prepared by baking in a coffee pot (briki) crushed into fine powder roasted coffee beans.

It is drunk more than any other kind of coffee in many parts of the eastern Mediterranean, Middle East, Balkans and North Africa. This coffee is reached even under the names "Armenian coffee" , "Arabic coffee" or "Middle Eastern coffee." In the countries of the Balkans is commonly called "Turkish" while in Cyprus called "Cyprus." In the Middle East it is common to mix coffee with cardamom and other herbs.

According to tradition, the first to prepare such coffee were the Bedouins of the Middle East who put the coffee pot on the sand that covered the ashes and coals to keep them alive. That's why there is a tradition of baking coffee on the sand (on the coals) in the traditional cafes.

A key tool in the preparation of Greek coffee is a pot called briki, in which we boil (almost) the mixture of water (75ml) with coffee and sugar, stirring with a spoon. Also characteristic is the thick foam (kaimaki) that is created when boiling the coffee. The preparation of coffee is considered successful when the kaimaki remains while the coffee is served. It is served in a small thick cup in the following names:

Sketos (without sugar) (75 ml water + 1 teaspoon of coffee)

Me oligi (with a little sugar) (75 ml water + 1 teaspoon of coffee + less than half a teaspoon of sugar)

Metrios (with sugar) (75 ml water + 1 teaspoon of coffee + 1 teaspoon of sugar)

Glikos (with a lot of sugar) (75 ml water + 1 teaspoon of coffee and 2 teaspoons of sugar).