How to Prepare Your CoffeeCypriot Coffee
In a Cypriot kafeneio, the order is never just 'a coffee' — it is skettos, metrios, or glykos, the sugar fixed before the briki ever touches the flame. The pot is small and long-handled, the grind finer than powder, and the coffee is left alone over low heat until a foam called kaimakki climbs to the rim. It arrives with a glass of cold water on the side and the unhurried expectation that you'll stay and talk. The grounds settle at the bottom of the cup and are never drunk — some read them for fortunes once the cup is turned over the saucer.
Ratio breakdown
Ingredients run from the top of the cup to the bottom; the last item is the bottom layer. Values are normalized to a true 100% stack.
What you need
- ~75 ml per cup (measured in the serving cup)Water
- 1 heaped teaspoon fine grounds per cupCoffee
Method notes
- Grind
- Ultra-fine — finer than espresso, close to powdered sugar
- Water temperature
- Low heat, just below boil (~90°C)
- Total time
- 7 min
Steps
Measure the water in the cup you'll drink from
The serving cup is the measure — filling the briki this way keeps the ratio honest cup to cup and leaves the right headroom for the foam to climb without spilling over.
Add the coffee — and sugar, if any — to the cold water
Sugar goes in before the flame, decided in advance as skettos, metrios, or glykos, so it dissolves into the body of the brew instead of sitting gritty at the bottom. Adding it later never gives the same cup.
Warm slowly, stirring only until the sugar dissolves
One stir is for the sugar; after that the pot is left alone. The fine grounds need to rise undisturbed for the kaimakki to build — a spoon dragged through the pot collapses the foam before it forms.
Watch the foam rise from the edges to the center
The kaimakki climbs the sides of the briki first, and the moment it gathers toward the middle is the signal to pull the pot — a few seconds later and it boils over, taking the foam with it.
Pour, sharing the foam evenly, and serve with a glass of water
Every cup deserves its share of kaimakki, so a multi-cup pour distributes a little to each in turn rather than filling one cup at a time. The glass of cold water alongside is part of the service, sipped before or after to reset the palate.
Tips
- Decide the sugar before you light the flame — skettos (none), metrios (medium), and glykos (sweet) are the common calls, with finer gradations like me oligin (a little less than metrios) and varis glykis (extra sweet) heard in some households.
- Let the cup rest a moment before you drink — the grounds need those seconds to settle at the bottom, or the first sip comes through gritty.
Common mistakes
- Letting it boil hard — a rolling boil scatters the kaimakki and drags bitterness out of the ultra-fine grind; low heat the whole way is the discipline.
- Stirring after the coffee goes in — it breaks up the foam that's building on the surface and mixes the grounds back through the cup before they've had a chance to rise and settle.
FAQ
What does kaimakki mean?
Kaimakki is the foam that crowns a well-made Cypriot coffee, built by leaving the ultra-fine grounds undisturbed as the pot warms. A cup without it is considered under-made — it's the visual proof the briki was watched, not rushed.
Cypriot coffee, Greek coffee, Turkish coffee — what's the difference?
Brewed side by side, they're the same technique: finely ground coffee simmered unstirred in a small long-handled pot until foam crowns the surface. The pot is called a briki in both Cyprus and Greece and a cezve in Türkiye, and the name on the cup mostly follows the country it's served in rather than a difference in the brew itself.
The Atlas
Help keep this preparation honest
The Atlas is only as trustworthy as the sources behind it. If a step on this page is off — or you know a preparation that belongs here — tell us. Two references is all we ask.