Drink Coffee, Be Happy

Hello, my name is Marion and I am a coffeeholic. Hardly surprising, given that I’m Norwegian, a country where each citizen on average drinks 160 litres of coffee annually. Some say we drink more coffee per person than any other nation – others say we’re ‘just’ number two, behind the Finns. In short, we Northern people are all coffeeholics, but with all of the snowing and raining going on, could you really blame us?

I’ll be the first to admit I’m a coffee snob. Decaf? Utterly disgusting, but then again, it’s not really coffee anyway. Nescafe instant coffee? Yuck. Frankly I’ve yet to taste instant coffee any better than toilet rinse. My grandma’s coffee? Utterly beastly. Nespresso has grown on me, but I’d prefer freshly brewed any day. Coffee made from freshly grinded beans is the way to go. Life’s frankly too short to drink instant coffee. 

The best coffee in the world is, in my humble opinion, the Arabic version, or Turkish coffee. I enjoyed many wonderful cups of Turkish coffee in Israel, drinking so much my friend started to worry. There’s something about cardamom and roasted beans that works so well together. It’s also easy to make at home. All you need to do is grind roasted beans with cardamom seeds to a fine powder. It needs to be even finer than espresso powder. The powder is then blended with warm water and sugar and the mixture is put on moderate heat. The temperature shouldn’t be too high, as the coffee will start boiling before it has time to extract the flavour. When the coffee starts to boil, the pot is removed from the heat for a few seconds, and then brought back for a second and third boil. 

And that's it, really. You can add more sugar for a sweeter taste (or reduce the amount, of course). The amount listed in the recipe is just my personal preference. 

{Turkish Coffee}

*Ingredients*
6 tbsp. Arabic coffee (Arabic roasted coffee grinded with cardamom)
5 tsp. sugar 
6 dl cold, fresh water


Mix the ingredients together in an ibrik or a casserole until the sugar dissolves. Place the ibrik/casserole over a middle-low heat and let it brew until it starts to boil and froth. Before the froth flows over the top, take the ibrik/casserole off the heat and let the froth settle down. Then place the ibrik/casserole back over middle-low heat and repeat the process twice.