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A Morning Without Coffee Is Like Afternoon:
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Preparation Of My Favorite Coffee: | There are many different coffees around the world. I have tried many of them and made many of them. But one type of coffee that I was raised on is called ' Traditional Turkish Style Coffee '. This coffee is widely used in the middle east and south eastern Europe. The recipe is as follow: Experimental Section: Equipment: 4 about 60 ml or 1/4 cup ceramic and nicely decorated cups. 4 matching saucers. 1 metal coffee pot (about 300 ml or 1 1/4 cup), preferred with a lip for easier pouring. (These can be purchased from any middle eastern and/or south eastern European food specialty stores). 1 teaspoon. 1 stove with a top burner. Ingredients: Turkish style coffee. (This can be purchased from any middle eastern and/or south eastern European food specialty stores). Water (tap water is recommended). White granulated sugar(from any food store). Procedure to make coffee: Add 240 ml or 1 (8 oz) cup of water to the metal coffee pot. Use one of the four 60 ml cups described above, by filling the cup with water to the lip and pouring the water into the metal pot. Repeat this three more times. Add 4 leveled teaspoons sugar. Place the pot on the stove and bring to boil. Remove the pot with sugar and boiling water from the hot stove. Slowly add 4 heaping teaspoons of Turkish style coffee to hot water and mix. The coffee will cause the liquid to rise. Be very careful that the solution does not overflow. Cleaning up is messy work. After all the coffee has been added and dispersed in water, return the pot with the coffee to the stove burner that is still on. As soon as the solution receives heat it will start to rise. Again be careful so the solution does not overflow the pot. Remove the pot from the burner as soon as the solution begins to rise. The coffee is done. Turn the stove burner off and put the unused ingredients away. Results: There are three well distinguished phases in the coffee solution while the coffee is hot. At the very top there is a brown foam-like layer, in the middle there is a brown liquid layer containing extracted soluble coffee components, such as brown pigments and caffeine and suspended non-dissolved coffee particles. At the bottom there is a dark brown solid layer which consists of the non-soluble coffee particles. In the cool or cold coffee solution only two phases are present, the liquid with the water soluble coffee components and the solid water non-soluble coffee components. Coffee must be served while it is hot, it tastes best that way. Once the solution cools, all the top foamy phase breaks apart permanently, and the coffee will not taste the same when it is reheated. Therefore while the coffee is hot, with the teaspoon (the same teaspoon that was used to measure sugar and coffee), distribute equal amounts of the foamy phase in each of the four cups (you need to reuse the cup that you used to pour the water into the pot). Once the foamy layer is gone, stir the remaining solution in the coffee pot with the teaspoon, and while the solution is still eddying, pour equal amounts of it into each of the four cups with the foamy phase. You want to bring as much of the sediment into the solution as possible, this is for later use. Also when pouring out the coffee pour it down the inside wall of a cup. That way the solution will get under the brown foamy layer that is in the cups already and force it to rise. Make sure you do not overfill the cups. The foam phase should not rise above the 4 mm or 1/8 of an inch below the cup lip. Put the cups in their respective saucers and serve. Drink the coffee while it is hot. While the coffee is being ingested, the suspended coffee particles will be slowly settling out of solution. By the time all the liquid has been ingested, almost 1/3 of the cup will contain the sediment (non-dissolved coffee particles). Discussion: With the sediment is where the real fun begins for some of the coffee drinkers. This is because that for the price of coffee one can have ones fortune told too. But this is only true if one of your guest is a 'cup reader'. The sediment in the cup is essential for fortune telling process. I will not cover this subject here. If you are interested to learn about it please email me at [email protected]. Note the above procedure describes how to make four servings of coffee. It is also possible to make a single serving or any amount of servings that you desire. Also note that it is possible to purchase metal coffee pots that are manufactured for a single serving preparation as well as any other single digit serving combination. The coffee pots are available also that can prepare and hold double digits servings. Coffee for calory conscious chemist and others. Coffee when extracted in water and ingested contains no calories to speak of. It is the sugar and dairy or non-dairy products added to coffee that make coffee high in calories. The 'Traditional Turkish Style Coffee' can also be manipulated to accommodate the calory conscious consumers. For one, not everyone likes sweet tasting coffee. I'm one of those people. I alter the 'Traditional Turkish Style Coffee' by reducing the amount of sugar I put in. I either reduce the sugar by 1/2 or 3/4 of the required. Another way to manipulate the calories is to add an artificial sweetener instead of real sugar to the coffee. This is something that an individual coffee drinker needs to experiment with. Some artificial sweeteners tend to alter the flavor of coffee, and this might not be a desirable alternative to some coffee drinkers. I'm one of those coffee drinkers that can taste that difference. Also, not all sweeteners behave the same at elevated temperatures, this is the second variable that needs to be experimented with. Note, if one just cannot outperform or equal the taste of the 'Traditional Turkish Style Coffee' by using alternatives, than there is always the possibility of reducing daily calories intact in other daily consumptions. Now remember, all coffees are similar in one or more ways. They all have same essential components that's why they are called coffee. Therefore if for some health reason you are required not to drink coffee, remember this is also coffee and you should not be drinking this coffee either. And now I bet you're amazed at how much chemistry is involved in making a simple cup of coffee? Even with all this information, there is still a lot of chemistry related to coffee that I have not covered. Comments and suggestions are welcome. Please forward them to [email protected].
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