Arabic Coffee

In the Middle East, the Syrian region has been a major cultivator of coffee for a long period of time. The coffee plant that is cultivated in this area is almost 3 meters high, but produces the same coffee bean. The Middle East population has long cherished the taste of coffee with fondness, and a guest in the Middle East is honored and welcomed with Arabic coffee. The history of this coffee can be traced back to the Arabian Peninsula where about 1,000 years ago, traders from central Africa and Ethiopia introduced the coffee berry and bean. Initially, coffee plant's fruits were used to prepare a type of wine. However, it was not long before the aroma of the bean enchanted the people of the Middle East.

Arabic Coffee in the western world is quite a generic term that is used for a cup of coffee that is brewed in Arabian style. In some cases, it is also known as Turkish coffee. Such a coffee is often known as qahwa. Black Arab coffee is known as awha sada and the one that is slightly sweetened is called as ahwa ariha. When greater quantities of sugar are added to it, the coffee is called as ahwa mazboot and in cases where the coffee is very much sweet, it is known as a ahwaziyada.

How to Make Arabic Coffee

The coffee beans and the process of brewing Arabic coffee is not very different from what we ordinarily do to make a cup of coffee. The last spices and herbs that are added to the brew is what gives the coffee its distinct taste and characteristics. The process that is used to make Arabic coffee is quite simple and straight froward. Here's how you can make it…

Arabic Coffee Ingredients
To make a cup of Arabic coffee, you will require the following ingredients:

    * 3 eight ounce glasses of water
    * ¾ cup lightly roasted and ground coffee
    * ¼ cup coarsely ground cardamom
    * ¼ teaspoon saffron (optional)
    * Arab coffee cup (optional)

Apart from these ingredients you may include some milk or milk powder, in case you hate just plain watery coffee.

Arabic Coffee Recipe
The process is short and straightforward. First take a vessel and bring the water to boil. Add the coffee powder to it and let the brew, boil for about quarter of an hour. Then turn off the heat and put the cardamom in the pot and stir the brew so that the aroma gets whiffed into the coffee. Strain the coffee into a cup and sprinkle the saffron into it.

There are several alternative recipes of Arabic and Turkish coffee that can be implemented, if you are enthusiastic enough and can lay your hands upon the ingredients. You can prepare the Qishr, a Yemeni quasi-coffee, often known as the poor man's coffee. The recipe is the same as above, but instead of coffee powder, add in coffee husks, ginger and cinnamon. The taste is a bit different than that of coffee, but as always its wonderful. A very strong and rather awakening variant of the conventional coffee is the Turkish coffee. In order to make such a coffee, you will have to lay your hands upon roast coffee beans. Use them in the aforementioned recipe with cinnamon and boil the brew till it thickens a bit. Serve with the essence of cinnamon.

Coffee was a delicacy that was widely enjoyed in the Ottoman empire, hence you will find several Arabic coffee variants ranging from Balkan recipes to the ones that were enjoyed by the Afghans. Every recipe has the same base but the essence giving herb is different. Well believe it or not, the countless recipes of Arabic coffee have made Ottoman empire a probable birth place of coffee shops or houses. You may also experiment with some brands of middle eastern and African coffee beans, the taste really does change.