Coffee in Macedonia

Coming to Eastern Europe, I was so excited to experience new coffee. People make Turkish-style coffee at home to drink after meals, when they have visitors, or to relax. Coffee is made and consumed in small amounts. This was an adjustment at first since I was accustomed to 8oz-20oz of coffee at a time. Andreya and I usually get 8oz cups when we have coffee at home, but our hosts drink from 4oz cups.  Rumor has it that the smaller the quantity you make at a time, the better the taste, but I haven’t experimented with it much yet.

To make Turkish coffee, you put a heaping teaspoon of finely ground coffee per cup of coffee.

Measure the water.

And then heat the water with the coffee over the stove in a special pot called a джезве. If you want sugar or milk in your coffee, it is boiled with the coffee.

Just when the water starts to boil, it is finished.

The coffee is poured into shallow mugs, and is allowed to sit for a short while for the grounds to settle.

I was excited to try coffee made in a new way, but I had no idea the coffee-culture shock I was in for.

Veles is a city with many cafes. However, these cafes are different than I what I expected. I was thinking about my nearly daily habits of going to Java Jacks to read, drink coffee, maybe eat some food, and run into some friends. These cafés are nothing like Java Jacks. They are basically chill bars that serve coffee, often no food, and are constructed for the sole of purpose of socializing. Loud music plays and groups of friends gather to drink anything from espresso to cocktails. These cafes are not a place to read or study. They are not suitable for productive alone time, and any attempt for me to do this is a dead giveaway that I am an American. Also, the coffee options are more limited than in America. There is not a variety of coffee beans; there are no pour-overs, no 12 different types of lattes; there is not even drip coffee. There is espresso, Turkish style coffee, and handful of sweet coffee drinks.

To-go coffee does not exist here. There are no to-go cups, and you don’t pay when you order your coffee.  You walk into a café, find a seat, a waiter comes takes your order and brings you your coffee. These differences are good representations of the differences in cultures. The Macedonian people take their time. Coffee is a social time here. It was for me in America too, but I also had the option of it being alone time.   A common expression here is, “there is time,” and to say “there is not time,” or “I have no time” is almost taken as a joke. Getting coffee is not a quick event. It is the time to sit and visit with friends, colleagues, or someone you just met, and that can take hours. I miss having the luxury of coffee to go, but I am enjoying taking my time.