About Cyprus

Time for a Coffee

Cypriots drink lots of local coffee. It is made individually in small, long handled pots, wide at the base and tapering at the top. These are called mbrikia and come in various sizes. Fresh coffee beans, usually Brazilian, are finely ground or powdered daily and one heaped teaspoon is added to each demitasse of cold water. Sugar goes in too at this stage, before heating the coffee on the stove. So you need to know whether you order your coffee glykos (sweet) metrios (medium sweet) or sketos (unsweetened).

The mbrikia are heated on the stove and when sugar has dissolved, the coffee is allowed to come to the boil, forming a creamy froth Kaimaki on top.

As the froth turns in from the sides and the coffee begins to rise in the pot, it is removed from the heat and a little is poured into each cup to distribute the froth.

Cyprus coffee is strong and should always be served with a glass of cold water. It contains no spices, such as the cardamon pod you might find in a cup of Arabic coffee, but sip with care, for at the bottom of every cup lurks a little sediment - do not drink it!

So relax, nibble something delicious, perhaps a kalo prama, literally translated, it means 'good thing', and, like so many flavor of Cyprus, that's just what it is.