Sunday, May 25, 2008

Try the Tradition of Turkish Coffee and Taste the Difference

The Europeans got their first taste of Turkish Coffee from the Ottoman Turks, who brought coffee to the West. They were great coffee drinkers, both at home and in public houses, the forerunners of our cafs, which started to spring up across the Islamic countries. Turkish coffee became part of the Turks life known as the "Wine of Islam" and the "Milk of Chess Players and Thinkers".
Turkish coffee is derived from the famous Arabica coffee bean, often the addition of the aromatic Cardamom spice is added to the coffee while it is being ground. Another method boils seeds with the coffee and lets them float to the top when served.
Traditionally Turkish Coffee has six levels of sweetness from ranging from very sweet to black. Sugar is not added to the coffee after it has been served. As the coffee begins to heat, it begins to foam. A rule of the traditional Turkish coffee ceremony states that if the foam is absent from the coffee, the host loses face. Turkish coffee is served hot from a special pot called a cezve.
In order to make your own brew of "Milk of Thinkers", heat water in a pot, add coffee and sugar to taste. Bring to boil. Pour half of the coffee into demitasse cups and return the remaining coffee to the heat and bring back to boil. Spoon off the foam and gently place without stirring. You'll need 1 1/2 cups of cold water, 4 teaspoons of strong dark roast coffee and about 4 teaspoons of sugar.
You can try adding cardamom if you like the taste. After some experimenting, you'll have an almost authentic Turkish coffee.
Article was prepared by Nicholas Webb of www.allabout-coffee-beans.comwww.allabout-coffee-beans.com

Cafe Baum

The oldest coffee house in Europe beside the Parisian “Café Procope” is to be found in Leipzig, Germany. In 1694 Heinrich Schütze opened the “Coffe Baum” in 4 Kleine Fleischergasse and gave out free coffee.

Over the following three centuries, many notable personages met here and enjoyed the popular drink. Gottsched, Klinger, E. T. A. Hoffmann or Wagner were often seen going in and out. Goethe, Lessing, Bach and Grieg were also known to be guests there. In the Schumann Room situated on the ground floor, Robert Schumann would meet with friends at his regular table between 1828 and 1844. Revolutionaries such as Blum, Liebknecht and Bebel also made “Coffe Baum” their second living-room. In 1990 Helmut Kohl and Lothar de Maizière discussed the possibilities of reunification here.

The sandstone sculpture above the doorway to “Coffe Baum” is especially famous. An Ottoman offers cupid a cup of coffee. It symbolises the meeting of the Christian western world with the Islamic East. No other than Augustus the Strong was supposed to have donated this sculpture as way of saying thank you to the landlady, who had taken immaculate care of him.

One of the most important coffee museums’ worldwide is to be found on the third floor. Over 500 chosen exhibits from 300 years of Saxony’s coffee and cultural history are presented over 15 rooms.