Greeks’ favorite habit is drinking coffee and every traveler visiting Greece, should enjoy a cup of coffee the way the locals do!
Especially Greek coffee is deeply connected with people’s everyday life in Greece and accompanies them in happy and sad moments. Greek coffee is usually offered when you pay a visit at someone’s house. You can also enjoy a cup of Greek coffee at a local cafeteria or a traditional “kafeneio”. In Greece Greek coffee is served even after funerals.
Greek coffee is made from dark roasted Arabica coffee beans which are ground to an extra fine brown powder. This type of coffee first came from Yemen during the 16th century. It is believed that an Ottoman governor who tasted the coffee in Yemen liked it so much that brought it back home with him and made it popular throughout the Ottoman Empire, part of which Greece used to be back then.
If you want to make your Greek coffee yourself, you will need a special coffee pot called briki and a demitasse cup which is half the size of a regular coffee cup. You need to fill the demitasse cup with water and add it into the briki. Coffee and sugar are also added at the briki depending on how strong and sweet you would like your coffee to be. You stir the mixture in the briki well and leave it on the burner until it starts to rise. Then you have to take it away from the burner and pour the coffee into the cup. The brew you get is strong, dark and tasteful with foam on top and grounds at the bottom of the cup.
Greek coffee is usually served in demitasse cups with saucer accompanied with cookies or a loukoumi, a traditional Greek sweet covered with powdered sugar, and a glass of cold water.
A popular belief about Greek coffee is that if the coffee is accidentally poured out of the cup or the briki(coffee pot), you will have luck and you will gain a lot of money!