Ibrik Coffee

Makes 1 small cup - 5 minutes

Various styles of coffee serve a variety of purposes, like espresso for a quick fix, a big brew with breakfast to down to get your day going, or something milky and flavored to enjoy with a good book. However, there is only one coffee style that hits your soul, provides the wisdom of philosophers past, and can tell you your future.. Ibrik Coffee. Known by many names across the balkans and middle east, this style of coffee retains the coffee grounds in your cup, can be oily like hot chocolate, requires no dairy, and can be made with the most rudimentary of equipment.

Ibrik coffee can be served black, sweet or medium-sweet (metrio in Greek) depending on your preference. Different sugar types (granulated white, sugar in the raw or brown sugar) can be used, but you'll have to adjust the amounts/weight accordingly.

You can grind fresh coffee beans using a peppermill or a high end grinder, but you'll need to get it to a superfine, almost talcum powder consistency to be used for this style of coffee. Arabica beans are used traditionally. We recommend pre-packaged turkish or greek coffee grinds on the market that are suitable for use, usually medium roast with generally mild caffeine content. (see picture below)

Prep for Medium-Sweet Coffee

Ibrik - (Butter warmer) - Coffee Pot
Spoons for sugar and coffee, and stirring
Optional: small olive wood paddle for stirring
Coffee Cups - Demitasse (Espresso Cups) 3oz-4oz
70g (~2.5 oz) Water - Filtered
7.5 g - Sugar (based on the weight of Wholesome brand - organic cane sugar) - This comes out to just under 2 tsp
8g - Super fine ground coffee - this is closer to a tablespoon or a very heap-y teaspoon!

Helpful Ratios if you want to adjust your cup:

For evenly sweet

Water: 100%

Sugar: 10.5%

Coffee: 11.5%

(https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/pro/reference/bakers-percentage)

Steps:

Add the water to your coffee pot/briki, over medium / medium-high heat.
Add sugar first, then coffee (to avoid getting coffee grounds in your sugar if using the same spoon).
Once the water has warmed up enough to where the coffee grounds are sort of melting into the liquid, stir thoroughly (about 15-20 seconds). You can use figure 8 motions, or alternate clockwise/counter-clockwise. Be sure to scrape the sides of the coffee pot too, otherwise that coffee will burn and affect the final product. Careful not to burn yourself if you've left the spoon in the pot to conduct & heat up. You can reduce the flame (quickly) or remove the pot from the fire while stirring a few seconds.
As the coffee starts to percolate and come to a boil, you'll hear steaming. All in all, for a single serving, you should aim for 2.5 - 3 minutes from the time you stir the coffee to when it reaches the slow boil.
When the coffee is near boil, an eye of the storm looking thing will form at the center of the pot as the sides start to rise. At this point, reduce the heat to control the rise for 1-2 seconds. Once the coffee has risen near the top of the briki, remove from the heat and immediately pour into your cup.
Wait a few minutes for the coffee sediment to settle before drinking. Sip, be careful not to burn your mouth.
Once you reach the sediment layer of your cup, stop. You'll notice some grit in the last few sips.

Tips

Water- Like all coffee prep, the water can greatly affect the taste and outcome, tap may be unsuitable, as are other high mineral content waters.
Measuring water- the classic method is to actually pour the water into the cup you want to use, and allow for some displacement from the grinds and sugar, and then pouring that into the pot/briki. You'll want to adjust your coffee/sugar amounts accordingly.
Ratios - Everyone has their preference, and you'll find yourself adjusting your coffee/sugar/water ratios the more often you drink. Find your sweet spots and don't be afraid to change it up! If you're on a coffee journey and don't want to rely on measurements, try using the same spoon day to day to learn your preferred ratios.
Cream layer (Kaimaki) - Like espresso, one of the pleasures of this coffee style is a film that develops on the top of your cup, post pour. (see the picture at the bottom)

A few tips to achieve this layer:

Make sure you're adding enough coffee grinds
Don't stir too late into the boiling process, it needs time to settle and develop, stirring late can break up the film that's developing.
Don't overboil the coffee, as soon as it starts rising, reduce/control the heat and the pour.
A funny point of argument - some say to pour the coffee slowly, others say rapidly! Try it out and let us know.

Be consistent with your water, and especially starting water temperature
If possible heat your ibrik on a smaller burner so that the flame is focused on the bottom of the coffee pot. If your burners are wider than the base of the coffee pot, you can try to move it off center, just be mindful of not heating up the handle, too much. Electric burners serve this purpose, but run the risk of turning off mid-brew.
Use medium to medium-high heat, bringing the coffee to a boil too slowly can lead to a bitter/over-extracted flavor.
Stir well! There are debates about how much to stir the coffee and agitate the beans to achieve a perfect final product, but under-stirring can lead to a disastrous, gritty mess. With all solubles, warm wat

er is best.

2 servings?! - Unfortunately, making 2 cups at once changes a lot of the timing and tips, it requires practice. More water means more time to boil, or boiling with a higher flame. In some cases, one of the cups can end up with more sediment, and it is difficult to achieve kaimaki with 2 cups. One tip is to alternate your pour between the 2 cups to keep them equal. You can also give the water some time to warm up before adding any of the ingredients.
If grinding your own beans, be mindful of the increased caffeine.