Thursday, January 30, 2025

Turkish Coffee with No Sugar???

Today is January 30, which on the Jewish calendar was 1 Shevat (I say "was" because I'm writing this after sundown, which means it's now 2 Shevat; I had a busy day).  And 1 Shevat is my mother's yahrzeit and the day I've chosen to write about my memories of her on my blog.

Even though it's rather late in the day at this point, I was thinking about coffee, which was one of my mother's favorite things to drink.  She always had to start her day with at least one cup of coffee, and she would drink it throughout the day also.

And that coffee was always strong and black.  She never added anything to her coffee — no sugar, no cream, no nothin'.  Just plain black coffee.

Well, sure, I hear you saying, there's nothing special about that.  Lots of people like black coffee.

But do lots of people like their Turkish coffee that way?

See, my mother didn't even like sugar in her Turkish coffee, which I've always heard is the traditional way to drink it.  Because Turkish coffee is really, really strong.  The kind where people joke it's only strong enough when the spoon stands up on its own in the cup.

Nope, no sugar in that either.  Just plain and black, please.

Now that's a woman who really liked her coffee.

My mother and I talked about coffee only once that I can recall.  It was after I had started college.  I was probably visiting for the holidays.  I think she was drinking a cup of coffee and offered me one.  I told her I didn't like coffee.  She was surprised and said that she used to drink a lot of coffee when she was in college and cramming for her exams.  I remember telling her that was the difference — I didn't have to cram for my exams.  She never asked me about coffee again.

I still don't like coffee.  My idea of the perfect cup of coffee is you take a big mug, pour a packet of instant hot chocolate into the bottom, add two spoonfuls of sugar, fill it about one third of the way with coffee, stir it up really well, and then fill the rest of the mug with half and half or whole milk.  Yes, I know that coffee drinkers sneer at me.  But I think of it as kind of like starting the day with a milkshake.

Turkish coffee image by Engin Akyurt and used under the Pixabay Content License.

No comments:

Post a Comment

All comments on this blog will be previewed by the author to prevent spammers and unkind visitors to the site. The blog is open to everyone, particularly those interested in family history and genealogy.