Cypriot coffee, from the mbriki to the cup

In Cyprus, coffee isn’t a quick break, it’s an excuse to sit down. Cypriot coffee comes in a small cup, is sipped slowly and arrives with its glass of water, and ordering it properly is one of the first things I’d learn before flying out. Here’s how it’s made, how to ask for it and where the habit comes from, using what the Famagusta tourism board and the Cyprus Food Virtual Museum publish. For everything else on the table, see Cypriot food.

A copper pot and a heaped teaspoon

The Famagusta tourism board explains it in detail. Cypriot coffee is very different from European coffees because it’s brewed in small, long-handled pots called mbriki, traditionally copper, with a wide base, a narrow neck and an overhanging lip. It uses freshly and very finely ground coffee, one heaped teaspoon per cup, and the sugar goes in at the start, while the water is still cold. The pot is then heated on the hob, or on a tray of hot sand that spreads the heat evenly.

Once the sugar has dissolved, the coffee is brought to the boil and a creamy froth, the kaimaki, forms on top. The froth starts moving from the edges towards the middle, the coffee rises, and that’s the moment the pot comes off the heat. It’s served in small porcelain cups. It’s strong, meant to be sipped slowly, and the thick layer at the bottom stays in the cup.

How do you order Cypriot coffee?

By saying how much sugar you want, because there’s no fixing it afterwards. Sketo is no sugar, metrio half a teaspoon and glykis a full teaspoon. I’d start with metrio, which lets you taste the coffee without the full bitter hit. If you’d like a few more words of the local language, there’s languages in Cyprus, but these three will see you right in any café.

It always comes with a glass of cold water. The Famagusta board adds that it’s served literally everywhere on the island and is the perfect companion to board games and long, unhurried chats.

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The kafeneio, the village coffee shop

The Cyprus Food Virtual Museum records what the traditional kafeneio used to serve. Alongside roasted coffee there were loukoumia, soumada, an almond cordial, tea and lemonade. The beans were ground and roasted over charcoal made from carob or golden oak, Cyprus’s national tree, because it burned for longer. The same museum notes that owners washed glasses in vinegar, and those used by tuberculosis patients in pure alcohol.

That’s the world I’d go looking for in the squares of the prettiest villages in Cyprus, where sitting down with a coffee and watching the day go by makes the most sense.

An import with a history

That coffee came from abroad is clear from a lovely detail of 1884 kept by the Cyprus Food Virtual Museum, from the newspaper «The Voice of Cyprus» of 27 July that year. Rio coffee from Brazil sold for 13.25 to 13.50 piastres an oka, a local unit of weight, and Austrian sugar for 5.75 to 6 piastres. One Cypriot pound was 20 shillings and a shilling 9 piastres. I don’t have official prices for a cup in a café today, so I won’t quote any.

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If coffee isn’t your thing

The same Famagusta board suggests two traditional drinks I’d order at least once. Airani, a cold drink of live yoghurt and mint that’s very refreshing on a hot day, and soumada, made from almonds, which it describes served hot and comforting. With so much fruit on the island, it adds, fresh juices are another option. In midsummer, between a scalding coffee and a cold airani at lunchtime, I know which I’d pick.

How and where I’d have it

Sitting down, in the morning or after lunch, with its glass of water and no eye on the clock. In town, in the old-town cafés of Nicosia, and beyond, in any village square. If you want something sweet with it, Geroskipou loukoumi and spoon sweets are the best match, and you’ll find them in Cypriot desserts.

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