Turkish Coffee Recipe

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A popular global favourite, few beverages can awaken the senses and satisfy the sweet tooth like Turkish coffee . I appreciated its caffeinating sweetness and even the fun involved in its preparation. I had a qualm with this recipe. Having bought coffee from Northern New South Wales, it clicked that I could mill the coffee even finer, hence making an Australian gourmet rendition of Turkish coffee. My recipe offers that option if one wants to work with their own ground coffee, and overall, it's something I found quite likeable about this form of coffee.

Milling my own coffee regenerated my interest in Turkish coffee, and overall, especially as Australian coffee is generally gourmet coffee, it made a very pleasant and interesting drink. When given the challenge of getting the milled coffee to froth, with only a small saucepan, frothing really pushed this recipe to that of a highly engaging and interesting pastime. As Northern NSW coffee is naturally lower in caffeine , it is quite an amazing variety to work with on this recipe.

Turkish Coffee (makes 1-2 cups)

Ingredients: one to four teaspoons of ground coffee (ground further into finely pulverised coffee) or purchased already pulverised from brands like Bushells (if shopping in an Australian supermarket), half to two teaspoons of sugar, and 100-150 ml of room temperature water. Do not grind beans in a salt and pepper mill, only pre-ground coffee.

Grinding the Coffee Method (skip this step if you bought pulverised coffee): Using an electric salt and pepper mill, adjust the mill to the finest grind, and add a plunger or ground coffee to the mill in line with how you would grind salt or pepper. Grind away till you have enough coffee to your liking. Note: Only use ground coffee to grind to a powder; don't use beans in a salt and pepper mill. If you want to grind beans, use a coffee grinder .

Coffee Brewing Method:
1. Add ingredients to the cooking vessel (i.e. a narrow and tall saucepan); do not stir; switch on low heat (5/9 on an electric stove for the first four minutes, then either 4 or 5 depending on the state of the mixture).
2. Skim some froth off the top with a ladle or large spoon depending on the width of the cooking vessel being used, and add to the serving cup(s).
3. Then let the remaining mixture gently heat a little further with the aim of creating more froth, and pour into cups carefully conserving the froth (this part of the recipe improves with practice).



Above (in order from left to right, top to bottom): adjusting the grind to finest, adding to and pushing the excess coffee off the mill, milling and collecting the coffee.



Above: Cooking the coffee, adding more than a dessert spoon of coffee and a half teaspoon of sugar to learn how to froth the drink.



Above: The unfrothed version, showing the fineness of the sediment and how it comes close to the supermarket version but still a hint coarser.



Above: The frothed version for the camera, although still a work in progress.

Conclusive notes:

There are few or no substitutions in this three-ingredient recipe, and early work shows even the improvised milled version has the potential to froth. In fact, my notion of manually pulverising was THE substitution. This recipe aimed to get one to enjoy making a coffee at one's own pace rather than get too concerned about the coffee's presentation. I have simply attempted to improve frothing the coffee to help those who want to work on presenting the coffee. This is a recipe where practice potentially makes perfect, as it is satisfying to get caffeinated and perfect one's own version of this timeless global favourite.

Note: Photos in this review were taken by the review's author in 2025. My other relevant coffee articles included coffee tasting as well as French press recipe ideas .

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