Hello, my coffee-loving friends!
Experiencing the habits and customs of different cultures is something I enjoy very much. Food and drinks are one of the things that speak a lot about a country. Today I enjoyed a delicious coffee prepared Lebanese style. Join me in the following lines of my post to see what this type of coffee is all about and some of its curiosities that make it so particular.
At home, it is our custom to consume coffee in the Italian style. It is something we adopted from my husband. We prepare our coffee in the Moka pot, so we are accustomed to strong and full-bodied coffee, but today we drink coffee prepared in the Arabian style, which is prepared very differently from the Italian.
To prepare coffee in the Arabian style the coffee should be ground at the moment of use and have to be very finely ground. The appearance of the ground coffee should be similar to flour or talcum powder. When the coffee beans are ground some cardamom seeds are added. It gives an exquisite aroma.
A copper or metal container called "rakwe" is used to prepare the coffee. In this container the coffee and water are added, and placed over medium heat. The traditional way is on a plate with hot sand, in contact with the "Rakwe" is the one that transmits the heat to the water.
Once the coffee boils and the foam begins to rise, it is removed from the fire. At this moment, you can add a little more coffee and water and put it back on the fire until it boils again and remove it again. This procedure is done three times. For the baristas trained under the Italian current, this way of making coffee makes it burn, but in reality, it is what gives a strong flavor to this beverage.
Before serving the coffee, it should be left to rest for a few minutes since the ground coffee should descend to the bottom of the "rakwe".
Arabian-style coffee is strong, that is why it is served in cups called "finjān", whose capacity does not exceed 3 ounces. Usually, no sugar is added but this depends on the taste of the diner.
When serving the coffee, the "rakwe" should not be shaken, so that when all the beverage has been consumed you can see the coffee grounds at the bottom.
To balance the bitter taste of coffee, you can accompany it with some delicious sweets based on filo dough with lots of nuts and dried fruit dipped in honey 😋😋😋😋
I confess you, I consider myself a neophile, especially with food and beverages. Coffee has not escaped my curiosity, so I will continue to experiment with this liquid gold!
Thanks for reading. See you in a future post!
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