This is a traditional recipe which is similar to Turkish Coffee, and the way in which it is made. You will need an ibrik (also called a briki) to make any of the four different Greek coffee recipes, but if you don’t have one you can use a small saucepan in its place.

Method:

Use one teaspoon of ground Greek coffee per cup of water (usually making no more than four cups per serving).

To make a sketos coffee, which is strong and bitter, don’t use sugar. To make a metrios Greek style coffee, use one teaspoon of sugar.

A glykys or vari glykys coffee is made using a teaspoon of honey instead of sugar and a glykys vrastos is again very sweet (using sugar) but boiled twice to shed the froth, which bubbles up when making Greek coffee.

With the water, sugar/honey and coffee grounds added, put the ibrik on to slowly boil and stir slightly until the grounds are mixed with the water. Make SURE you hold the long handle of the briki because it boils quickly and you want to avoid spillage.

Then when the coffee starts to froth and rise to the rim of the briki, remove it from the heat immediately – but not before it rises to this point! Allow the coffee to stand for a minute and then pour the same amounts of liquid AND froth into each cup.

NOTE

Never stir your Greek coffee after it has settled and been served up. You really do not want to taste the coffee grounds residue left in the bottom of your cup!