Food: Coffee
FOOD: COFFEE
A drink popular in the Middle East and worldwide.
The first mention of coffee appears to be from a tenth-century pharmacological work by the Persian physician Rhazes (Muhammad ibn Zakariyya alRazi). The coffee bean (the seed from pods of the Coffea arabica tree) is believed to have originated in Ethiopia, traveling to Yemen by way of Arab trade routes. The Yemeni town of Maqha gave its name to a type of coffee, mocha. It had arrived in Mecca by 1511 when it was forbidden by the authorities, and by 1615 it had reached Venice. The popularity of coffee spread throughout the Islamic world, where it gave rise to the coffee houses that have enduring popularity in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Arabic or Turkish-style coffee is always prepared to order. The coffee beans are roasted in large frying pans and ground very fine. The ground coffee and water are brought to a gentle boil in small long-handled pots called rakweh. The coffee is poured into demitasse cups without handles. After the grounds have settled, the coffee is drunk without being stirred. Sugar, cardamom, orange-blossom water, rose water, or saffron may be added to the coffee
during the brewing process. Coffee is always served as part of social interactions in the Middle East.
Clifford A. Wright