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

In earlier years, many of us have likely come across such videos online: a street vendor holding a small copper pot, continuously rubbing it in a special sand furnace, causing coffee liquid to continuously emerge from the pot. Even after the vendor pours out the coffee, as long as the small pot returns to the sand furnace for reheating through friction, new coffee will begin to emerge again from within the pot - quite magical. This, my friends, is the world-renowned Turkish coffee.

A Unique Coffee Tradition

Turkish coffee can be said to be completely distinct from all popular coffees today, standing alone in its uniqueness. This is because both its preparation method and its functions beyond drinking are completely different from today's popular coffees. The emergence of Turkish coffee can be traced back to the 16th century, when after the Ottoman Empire conquered Yemen, coffee was brought from Yemen to the Ottoman capital of Constantinople. Since then, Turks developed the habit of drinking coffee and invented this unique preparation method known as Turkish coffee. With the development of time, Turkish coffee has become an indispensable cultural symbol of Turkey.

The Illusion of Endless Coffee

Returning to the question many friends are curious about: why does Turkish coffee seem to never run out? Actually, FrontStreet Coffee briefly introduced this in a previous article about Turkish coffee - it's not that it never runs out. Rather, it's because of its different preparation method combined with the limited viewing angle in the videos that creates the illusion of endless coffee.

Unique Preparation Method

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

The small pot used for brewing Turkish coffee is called "Cezve," which is the copper pot with a long handle shown in the image above. Being made of copper, it has excellent thermal conductivity. Combined with the high-temperature sand from the sand furnace surrounding it, the pot body can heat more evenly when brewing coffee. Generally, Turkish coffee is made using extremely fine, flour-like coffee powder and cold water. When the coffee in the pot begins to boil and bubble, you can start pouring out the coffee. Since the foam is lighter in weight, it floats above the coffee liquid, so when the pouring angle is small, most of what comes out is foam.

Because what's poured out is a small amount of coffee liquid and foam, there's still quite a bit of coffee remaining in the pot. Then, as long as we place the small pot back into the sand furnace to reheat, the coffee boils again, producing new foam. Repeating this process creates the magical phenomenon (illusion) of coffee being able to provide "endless refills." But in reality, if you keep pouring, the coffee will eventually run out. This is why FrontStreet Coffee says it's an illusion created by the combination of Turkish coffee's preparation method and limited viewing angles. If the video's perspective could be adjusted to a front or top-down view, we could clearly see the remaining capacity of coffee in the cup.

Two Different Brewing Methods

We're not done yet! Turkish coffee has two different brewing methods after boiling. The most classic method is "three boils,"所谓三滚, which means removing the heat source after the coffee begins to boil and bubble, then waiting for the foam to contract due to cooling before placing it back in the sand furnace for a second boiling and bubbling, then repeating once more - the coffee boils a total of 3 times before being poured into the cup, hence the name "three boils." The brewing method we see in the videos, however, is another traditional method with higher visual appeal. The specific approach is, after the coffee boils and bubbles, to first pour one-third of the liquid into the coffee cup, then place the remaining coffee back on the fire to continue boiling. After it boils again, pour out another portion, then repeat until finished, just as FrontStreet Coffee introduced above.

Because the water temperature is continuously heated during the extraction process, and the coffee grounds are ground very finely, many friends probably imagine Turkish coffee to be a cup of "over-extracted coffee." But in reality, because the entire extraction process doesn't last very long, the taste of Turkish coffee is much better than what most people might imagine~

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