Coffee and Caffeine FAQ

"Oddly enough even though the coffee is being boiled..."

- Well, in fact as you had also mentioned above, water is only brought to a near-boil not really boiled. My mom used to say "if it clearly starts boiling, better pour it away!"

- The difficult part for me is watching the pot (cezve) all the time for a quite while, since it requires low heat and a start with cold water. You should remove cezve from heat when you hear faint "sizzling" sounds due to tiny air bubbles (you can also see them raising from the sides of cezve), but certainly before any large bubble forms due to boiling. For me unfortunately that moment usually happens to be when I just walk away from the stove for a second...

- The people that I know always bring the water to a near-boil only a second time; not 2-3 times more. It may just be a regional practice. It seems like one needs to experiment with it to see what difference it makes.

- And one tip: in brewing Turkish coffee, the foam is considered to be very important, to an extent that people will judge your coffee making skills with the amount of foam that ends up in their cup. It may have something to do with the flavors, oils, etc, I don't know the technical reason; or maybe just because it's the tradition. Anyhow, to preserve the foam, 1.use cold water & low heat, 2.do not stir, 3.after the first near-boil, distribute the foam from cezve into the cups using a tea spoon, and replace cezve on stove only after that. Foam accumulates until the first near-boil, but totally dissolves or is reduced with the next. And if you don't use a spoon to distribute it, only the first or the last cup gets all the foam; the rest nothing.
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Enjoy your coffee...