137Greek coffee

Method

Metrios (medium-sweet) in a briki. Serve with a tall glass of cold water and a small piece of loukoumi or a dry biscuit.

You will need

• briki (traditional narrow-necked coffee pot)
• demitasse coffee cup
• small spoon

1. Pour the cold water into a traditional copper or stainless steel briki. 1 min Ready when: water measured to fit the cup exactly
2. Add the finely ground Greek coffee and sugar, stirring once or twice until the grounds are submerged and the sugar is dissolved. 1 min Ready when: grounds fully wetted
3. Place the briki over the lowest possible heat source, such as a small gas ring or hovoli, leaving it completely untouched. 2 min Ready when: liquid warming gently without disturbance
4. Watch closely as a ring of fine foam forms around the edge and slowly rises towards the rim of the pot. 1 min Ready when: thick kaimaki rising steadily to the top
5. Remove the briki from the heat just before it reaches a rolling boil, then pour slowly into a small demitasse cup, letting the kaimaki settle on top. 1 min Ready when: intact dense foam sitting atop the coffee

Tap a step to tick it off.

Make ahead and storing

Must be made and consumed fresh; grounds will settle to the bottom of the cup within two minutes.

Substitutions

• none for white sugar. Leave out entirely for a traditional sketos (unsweetened) coffee, or double it for glykos (sweet).

Common mistakes

• Letting the coffee come to a violent rolling boil. Boiling destroys the delicate kaimaki foam and turns the coffee unpleasantly bitter and burnt.
• Stirring the pot once it is hot on the flame. Agitating the liquid disperses the fine froth so the signature velvety head cannot gather properly.

Regional variants

• Varyglykos: a double-boiled sweeter version with a heavier, collapsed foam ring.
• Kafes sti hovoli: cooked slowly over a pan of heated sand for gentler, more uniform extraction.

About the dish

Unfiltered, finely ground coffee boiled in a narrow pot arrived in Greek lands during the Ottoman period and was long called Turkish coffee. The naming shifted decisively towards Greek coffee in the mid-twentieth century, particularly around political tensions over Cyprus. It remains the anchor of daily kafeneio culture across the country, ordered precisely by sweetness and presence of foam.

Found in all of Greece. Cooked for everyday.

Cousins elsewhere

• Türk kahvesi (Turkish). Prepared in the same ibrik method with an ultra-fine grind; renamed ellinikos kafes in Greece during the mid-twentieth century.
• Ahwa arabiyya (Levantine). Similar unfiltered decoction, though in the Levant it is often perfumed with green cardamom pods.

Nutrition per serving (estimate)

0 kcal · protein 0 g · fat 0 g (saturated 0 g) · carbohydrate 0 g (sugars 0 g) · fibre 0 g · sodium 4 mg

An estimate (summed from ingredient estimates) that varies with the exact ingredients. It is not dietary advice.

Written fresh by Epikouria editors from general culinary tradition. Recipe by the Epikouria editors. Standard urban and kafeneio method for brewing a single metrios Greek coffee in a briki..