Turkish Coffee

M. Sabri Koz

Coffee has played an important part in Turkish life for 500 years. Although it originated in Ethiopia and was later introduced to Yemen in the Arabian peninsula, neither of these countries supply the world with coffee today. Both places are remembered only in accounts of coffee's history, which is interwoven with legend. For a long time the world coffee trade has been in the hands of international trading companies that purchase the raw or roasted beans from distant countries. Although tea has brought about a decrease in coffee drinking in Turkey, in recent years the arrival of international coffee brands and coffee house chains has sparked off a slow revival.