Okan University Lecturer, Gastronomy Writer and Coffee Consultant Cenk R. Girginol talks about the adventure of Turkish coffee and the secrets of making good coffee on Turkish Coffee Day.
Written by Cenk Girginol
I used the words “magic journey” in the title. Because the story, which really started with the drinking of coffee as a beverage, completed the basic point of creating a culture rather than being just a beverage, and added new words to the spoken language, as if by magic.
Coffee was discovered in the land of present-day Ethiopia (then Abyssinia) around the 8th century. Coffee cherries, which are generally used in bread making and meals, were consumed as a beverage for the first time in Yemen in the 12th century. It is not a goat-shepherd story; the story started with Sheikh Shadhili, as evidenced by historical documents. Coffee, which was drunk by saying “Ya Allah” in the dhikr ceremonies of the Sufi sect, theoretically was included in the Ottoman lands with the conquest of Yemen in 1517. Ottoman Empire first met the coffee, brought to the palace by the Yemen Governor Özdemir Pasha in 1539, and we can say that the turning point in the Ottoman Empire was formed with the world’s first coffeehouse (Kivahan) opened in Tahtakale, Istanbul in 1554.
Why are coffeehouses so important? Because coffeehouses are the most important catalyst that brings us a result that includes the current cultural structure of Turkish coffee along with many of our cultural heritages. Through coffeehouses, people became more socialized, even criticized the state, and met their daily needs. Coffeehouses also acted as an employment agency. In addition, they were places where art movements came up and where traditional improvised theaters such as Hacivat-Karagöz were played. These are not enough to explain the influence of coffeehouses in social life.
Afterwards, Venice with Nurbanu Sultan is in the first place in spread of coffee to Europe. France and Hossohbet NĂĽktedan SĂĽleyman AÄźa with the magnificent story, which I will tell in detail in another article, and finally the coffee sacks left at the gates of Vienna after the Battle of Vienna in 1683. We can say that it is a coffee story that spreads in waves with the birth and progress of coffee in Europe and the world.
How did December 5 World Turkish Coffee Day come about? We can exactly say the opening of the world’s first coffeehouse, or the fact that coffee was born from these lands and spread to the world, and we can even give the titles of the oldest cooking method to the only coffee in the world cooked with ground coffee. However, it is a sad but true fact to say that our coffee is not very common in the world as in everything else. The Turkish Coffee Culture and Research Association continues to work to make Turkish coffee more widespread. For example, they have made applications for inclusion of Turkish coffee in the UNESCO Cultural Heritage List with the files they have prepared and the project they have carried out jointly with the Ministry of Culture. As a result of the evaluations of the UNESCO commission, Turkish coffee and culture were included in the Intangible Cultural Heritage List of UNESCO on 5 December 2013. Thus, coffee has been added to our other values ​​on the list, such as ahi order, Kırkpınar wrestling, Hacivat-Karagöz. More importantly, this cooking method has been registered in the name of Turkish coffee. For this reason, every year since that date, 5 December is celebrated as Turkish Coffee Day. Last year, the Mayor of Washington declared this special day together with Turkish coffee and published an official letter stating that it will be celebrated every year. It is a very important step for the world to accept reality and give importance to it.
