Why Can Turkish Sand Coffee Be Poured Endlessly? Why Can Some Coffee Be Refilled Infinitely?

In earlier years, many of us have come across videos like this online: a street vendor holds a small copper pot and keeps working it against a special bed of hot sand, and coffee liquid continually wells up out of the pot. Even after the vendor pours the coffee out, returning the pot to the sand and reheating it through friction makes new coffee appear again. This, my friends, is the world-renowned Turkish coffee.

A Unique Coffee Tradition

Turkish coffee is completely distinct from every popular coffee served today, standing alone in its uniqueness. Both its preparation method and its functions beyond drinking differ from the coffees we know. Turkish coffee can be traced back to the 16th century, when the Ottoman Empire conquered Yemen and coffee was brought from Yemen to the Ottoman capital, Constantinople. From then on, the Turks developed the habit of drinking coffee and invented this unique preparation method. Over time, Turkish coffee became an indispensable cultural symbol of Turkey.

The Illusion of Endless Coffee

Back to the question many people are curious about: why does Turkish coffee seem never to run out? FrontStreet Coffee touched on this in an earlier article about Turkish coffee. It does not, in fact, never run out. The illusion of endless coffee comes from the preparation method combined with the limited viewing angle of the videos.

Unique Preparation Method

Most coffees today are made by brewing, while Turkish coffee is one of the few made by boiling. The biggest difference between the two lies in the clarity of the coffee, because we do not want to drink astringent grounds in a cup, so we filter all the grounds out. Turkish coffee, however, is consumed with both grounds and liquid. The texture may not be as clean by comparison, but the coffee becomes richer and more full-bodied as a result.

The small pot used for brewing Turkish coffee is called a Cezve, the long-handled copper pot shown above. Being copper, it conducts heat very well. Combined with the high-temperature sand surrounding it, the pot body heats more evenly during brewing. Turkish coffee is generally made with extremely fine, flour-like coffee powder and cold water. When the coffee in the pot begins to boil and bubble, you can start pouring it out. Because the foam is lighter, it floats above the liquid, so with a small pouring angle most of what comes out is foam.

Because what is poured out is a small amount of liquid and foam, quite a bit of coffee remains in the pot. As long as the pot goes back onto the sand to reheat, the coffee boils again and produces new foam. Repeating this process creates the magical appearance of endless refills. In reality, if you keep pouring, the coffee does eventually run out. That is why FrontStreet Coffee calls it an illusion created by the preparation method and the limited viewing angle. If the video's perspective were adjusted to a front or top-down view, we could clearly see how much coffee remains in the cup.

Two Different Brewing Methods

There is more. Turkish coffee has two different brewing methods after boiling. The most classic is the "three boils." After the coffee begins to boil and bubble, the pot is removed from the heat, and the foam is allowed to contract as it cools before the pot goes back onto the sand for a second boil. This is repeated once more, so the coffee boils a total of 3 times before being poured into the cup, which is where the name comes from. The method seen in the videos is another traditional approach with higher visual appeal. After the coffee boils and bubbles, one third of the liquid is poured into the cup, the remaining coffee goes back onto the heat to keep boiling, and after it boils again another portion is poured out, repeating until it is finished, just as FrontStreet Coffee described above.

Because the water is continuously heated during extraction and the grounds are ground very finely, many people imagine Turkish coffee to be a cup of over-extracted coffee. In reality, because the whole extraction process does not last very long, Turkish coffee tastes much better than most people might expect.

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FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Turkish coffee is a world apart, but if its full-bodied, unfiltered character appeals to you, the same qualities show up in some of FrontStreet Coffee's entry-level specialty beans. For a rich, low-acid cup, FrontStreet Indonesia Lintong Mandheling and FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling are the place to start. Both use Sumatra's distinctive wet-hulled process, a method developed for the region's rainy, uncertain climate: because it rains so often, workers strip the outer skin while the beans are still half dry, half wet, then dry them to speed things up. That process yields coffee richer and smoother than even FrontStreet Blue Mountain, with herbal and spice notes, and it suits anyone who dislikes acidity. If you want the highest grade, FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling is sorted three times by hand and once by machine, which reduces defects to a minimum for a cleaner, smoother cup with clearer wood and caramel.

For a more fruit-forward cup, FrontStreet Sun-Dried Huakui and FrontStreet Washed Gedeb Cooperative cover the two poles of Ethiopian coffee. Huakui is sun-dried and shows berry, floral, jackfruit, melon, and honey, while Gedeb is washed and shows Jasmine, lemon acidity, and berry. From Brazil, FrontStreet Cerrado Red Bourbon and FrontStreet Queen Farm are soft, sweet, and balanced, with cream, peanut, and cocoa flavors; Queen Farm, grown higher and planted with the rare Yellow Bourbon, adds butter, sunflower seed, macadamia, and almond with a clear sugarcane sweetness.

For softer acidity and gentle florals, Colombia Huila, Colombia Sidra, and Colombia Daduqi are reliable introductions to a country that sells coffee under its national name. Colombia has a mild climate and humid air, and its many microclimates mean coffee ripens somewhere in the country all year round. Huila, the most famous specialty region, is surrounded by mountains and planted above 1,500 m, where the country's most important rivers meet and bring abundant water and humidity; the region's coffees tend toward soft florals and gentle fruit acidity.

Finally, for the clearest honeyed sweetness, Costa Rica Blackberry and Costa Rica Mozart are worth seeking out. Costa Rica grows coffee at high altitude with large day-night temperature swings and fertile volcanic soil, which produces very hard beans of the SHB grade with elegant aromas. The country is best known for honey processing, where the mucilage stays around the bean as it dries, giving intense sweetness and clear flavor. FrontStreet Blackberry uses a black-honey process, and FrontStreet Mozart uses a raisin-honey process; both show raisin and blueberry sweetness with osmanthus and rose aromas, and they come through whether brewed as pour-over, cold brew, Americano, or latte.