Ottoman coffee

Coffee appeared in the Ottoman Empire around 1540, , as history shows us that coffee was introduced by Özdemir Pasha, the Ottoman ruler of Yemen, who noticed the distinctive characteristics of the coffee drink.

In the Ottoman culture, coffee was cooked with large teapots in coffee houses. Books were read and conversations were held in these coffee houses. Sometimes statesmen would come to these shops.

The coffee has become famous all around the world for both its strong taste and its special methods of preparation and service. Ottoman coffee, which was prepared by adding various herbs and aromas to Turkish coffee during the Ottoman Empire.

There are different ingredients in Ottoman coffee. These contents are; Menengiç, Yemeni coffee, cardamom, salep, mastic gum, carob, cream, and chocolate. Ottoman coffee is brewed coffee. Coffee beans are finely ground (the finest of all brewing techniques) then directly mixed with water and boiled in a special pot called a Cezve. According to the opinion of the Ottomans, this preparation will keep the most quintessential flavor of coffee.

The coffee is more aromatic and thicker compared to other coffees. It is easily distinguishable from others with its unique aroma and foaming.

Ottoman coffee is also known as caravanserai coffee. Ottoman coffee, specially prepared for the sultans of the period, did not go out of the palace.
Ottoman coffee

First coffee house in Venice

The first coffee house in Italy is said to have been opened in 1645. In the beginning, the beverage was sold with other drinks by lemonade-venders.

The Venetians first encountered coffee in Constantinople, where it had arrived in the late sixteenth century. Two Syrian, Hakm and Shams, were running a very successful coffee shop in the Bosporus.

In 1640, Venetians ships began importing coffee beans, or kahve from Ottoman Empire.

The first coffee house in Venice, retailing coffee to Christian Venetians, was opened in 1683, in Piazza San Marco.

It was modeled after the coffee shops that Western travellers encountered in the Ottoman Empire.

One of the early famous coffee house keepers of Venice was Floriano Francesconi, who opened a small establishment in St Mark’s Square, under the Procuratie Nuove in 1720. It was called the Venice Triumphant.

The coffee house market in Venice was transformed in 1723 by Giuseppe Boduzzi’s new Caffè Aurora, under the arcades of the Procuratie Nuove next to the campanile.
First coffee house in Venice