Interpretation of Fortune-Telling Patterns in Turkish Coffee How to Brew Turkish Coffee and Why It's Not Filtered

Walk the romantic streets of Turkey and you will find many street vendors selling a curious kind of coffee. The pot sits in hot sand to brew. Whenever the pot threatens to overflow, the vendor pours some of the coffee into a cup, then puts the pot back over the heat. It overflows again, another portion goes into the cup, and the process repeats several times—quite a spectacle! This is the famous Turkish coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee offers a little scientific background here: Turkish coffee does not actually mean coffee from modern Turkey, but coffee from the former Ottoman Empire. Before the Turks, Arabs in the Middle East were already using a large pot called a "Dallah," with a spout like a toucan's beak, to brew very lightly roasted—possibly even unroasted—raw coffee beans. The Turks improved on the Arabian pot by using a small, long-handled vessel called a "Cezve" (known as an "Ibrik" in Greek), repeatedly tossing water and coffee into the pot to brew over charcoal, and that gradually evolved into today's Turkish coffee.

The Spread of Turkish Coffee Culture

As the Ottoman Empire expanded, Turkish coffee spread with it as a cultural export, both across the empire and into various European countries. What we now call Greek coffee and Armenian coffee actually share the same origins as Turkish coffee. Sometimes Turkish coffee is also referred to as Arabic coffee.

The Principle of Brewing Coffee in a Turkish Pot

The equipment used to brew Turkish coffee is a Turkish pot called a "Cezve." It is typically made of brass and is characterized by a long handle connected to a cylindrical body with a narrowed opening. Even today, high-quality Turkish pots are entirely handmade. The copper walls are 1-1.5mm thick, which gives both hardness and proper heat distribution.

In an era dominated by modern brewing methods, Turkish coffee stands out as one of the few that uses "boiling" to "extract" coffee. The biggest difference from the methods commonly used today is that most modern approaches filter the grounds out to produce a clean cup, while Turkish coffee is drunk with grounds and liquid together.

Today Turkish coffee usually uses beans from Brazil, which is one reason its flavor is not always considered exceptional. Some coffee shops now use high-quality single-origin Arabica beans to make Turkish coffee instead.

The grind for Turkish coffee is as fine as flour—even finer than the grind used for espresso. The traditional heat source is sand heated to 200°C, though gas stoves, charcoal stoves, and other heat sources are used today as well.

Brewing Method

First, using a single-serving Turkish pot, add 12 grams of extremely finely ground coffee powder, then add 120-180 grams of cold water (depending on the size of your tasting cup). Then bury the pot in the heated sand furnace (other heat sources provide bottom heat), with the sand wrapping the whole body so the heat distributes more evenly inside the pot.

The traditional method involves "three boils": during heating, after about 5-7 minutes, when the coffee reaches its boiling point and shows a tendency to expand and erupt, remove the pot from the heat source, then put it back to continue heating. Repeat this twice, and on the third boil, pour the coffee into the cup.

Some methods first pour about one-third of the coffee into each cup, then return the remaining coffee to the fire to boil until it bubbles again, before distributing it in turn into the cups already poured.

Coffee Ground Divination Interpretation

Drinking Turkish coffee has produced some interesting cultural practices, the most widespread of which is reading fortunes from the grounds. After finishing the coffee, place the saucer over the cup, then flip it over. Once the grounds have solidified, you can interpret fortune from the patterns. Of course, this is entertainment and part of Turkish coffee culture rather than superstition.

Moon Phase Patterns

Full Moon: Indicates an extremely lucky day, when the goddess of fortune stands firmly by your side. Whatever you do, as long as you work hard at it, you will certainly succeed.

Half Moon: A smooth day ahead, when you can cooperate well with others and complete work entirely to plan. Seize the opportunities of the day and you might also make a small fortune.

Crescent Moon: Some minor setbacks will appear in work and life. Adjust your mood, let go of unpleasant matters, and you can still achieve your goals.

New Moon: An extremely unfavorable day, when everything requires caution. Stay calm when facing situations to avoid impulsive mistakes that could lead to uncontrollable consequences. Approach everything with a normal mindset; patience and humility will keep trouble away.

Other Types: Nothing carries any sign, and heaven knows what will happen. In short, the day will be thrilling and exciting, but as long as you keep a normal mindset, nothing bad will come of it.

Other Pattern Interpretations

Four-legged animals or trees: Usually represent success, such as a promotion at work, passing an examination, or gaining fame or status.

Heart shape: Usually indicates the arrival of love. If there is a heart in the cup and you are single, love is coming. If you already have a partner, it means they will love you wholeheartedly. Two hearts in the cup indicate mutual understanding, and if a ring shape accompanies them, marriage between the two is highly likely.

Ring: Usually represents engagement, or that within the next three months someone around you might hold a wedding.

Numbers or dates: Usually related to months or dates. If a number has special significance to you personally, pay special attention. For example, if 8 appears and the 8th of this month has already passed while it is currently May, this likely refers to August.

English letters: Usually represent someone's surname. For example, C might represent "Zhang" or "Zheng," while K could represent the surname "Jin."

Birds or bird-like objects: Usually indicate unexpected surprises or possibly good news. If it is a bird spreading its wings to fly high, something surprising will happen soon, or surprises will arrive quickly.

Empty rectangle: Usually indicates the arrival of wealth. The larger the rectangle, the greater the wealth. So you might buy a lottery ticket recently or pay attention to receipts. Whether you can keep that wealth depends on the moment you open cup and saucer—the degree to which they stick together. The tighter they stick, the less likely the wealth will leak away.

Snake-like shape: Usually represents something bad, especially nearby. Petty people may appear around you, or you may be plotted against. In any case, it is best not to come into direct conflict with others. If it is in an S shape, it may also be related to surnames, such as "Xie" or "Xu."

Tubular shape: If a tubular shape appears on the cup wall, it usually represents travel or upcoming matters related to moving. The longer the tube, the farther you will go. If the tube has a closed end, the journey will be hindered and not easy to accomplish.

Eye: Usually indicates being envied by others. The more eyes that appear, the more serious the situation. Pay more attention to your words and actions.

Circles, straight lines, triangles: Circles usually represent good things, such as success; straight lines indicate smooth progress; triangles also represent success, but mostly related to the entertainment industry, media, and the art world.

Stars or constellation-related patterns: If star shapes appear, they usually indicate dreams or wishes coming true. If constellation symbols or patterns appear, they indicate the nature of certain matters. For example, Aries represents acting too impulsively, while Libra might be related to love.

Unicorn appearance: A unicorn usually represents someone's secret fantasies. If a unicorn pattern appears, it typically indicates secrets in one's heart that others do not know about, such as extramarital affairs or triangular relationships.

If coffee grounds on the cup wall don't disperse: This indicates the person seeking divination is under considerable pressure. If there are gaps between the grounds and the cup wall, there is still room for relief. If there are no gaps, the person should find someone to talk to and try to express the pressure they feel.

Coffee Knowledge Exchange

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style).

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee on WeChat (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Turkish coffee is traditionally made with Brazilian beans, and it is a forgiving method that rewards a balanced, medium roast. FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen's Estate fits that role well: a distinctive Yellow Bourbon from Brazil, the world's largest coffee producer, with a gentle, sweet character. Medium roasted, it shows cream peanut, chocolate, toast, and sugarcane aromas and sweetness, and it works as pour-over, in a moka pot, or on an espresso machine.

The same medium roast that suits a Cezve also suits a home brewer. FrontStreet Coffee's Strawberry Candy is a Geisha blend of a Costa Rican honey-process coffee and a washed Panamanian Geisha, roasted medium to bring out both orange-blossom honey and rounded sweetness; it brews as cold brew, pour-over, or espresso. And FrontStreet Coffee's 2013 Natural Typica, a Chinese specialty coffee from Yunnan, is medium roasted to restore its balanced, gentle character, with nut, brown sugar, black tea, and dried apricot notes; it suits pour-over, cold brew, and drip machines, and offers excellent value.

If you like a classic profile with more body, FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 is a Typica grown in Jamaica's Blue Mountains and roasted medium, which lets its acidity, bitterness, sweetness, and body fuse into one elegant whole. In the cup you taste chocolate, roasted nuts, cream, and caramel—a roast-driven flavor profile few other coffees can match.