Turkish coffee vs Bosnian coffee

The step that separates them

Widely documented

1. Turkish: everything in from cold. Coffee, cold water and any sugar go into the cezve together and are heated slowly. The coffee is in contact with the water from the first moment.
2. Bosnian: water first, alone. Water is brought to the boil in the džezva with nothing in it. A little of that boiling water is poured off into a cup and kept aside.
3. Bosnian: coffee into hot water. The ground coffee is added to the hot water left in the pot, which is returned to the heat until the coffee rises.
4. Bosnian: the reserved water goes back. The water that was held aside is poured back in after the rise. That returned water is the signature of the method.

The two pots are the same vessel family. Cezve and džezva are one word in two languages.

Sugar is taken, not brewed

Widely documented

In Turkish coffee the sugar is cooked into the brew, which is why the level has to be chosen when ordering. In Bosnian coffee no sugar goes into the pot at all. A cube is dipped into the coffee and bitten, or held in the mouth while the coffee is sipped through it.

The consequence is practical. A pot of Bosnian coffee suits a table of people who each want it differently, because the sweetness is decided at the cup.

A cup made for you, or a pot left with you

Widely documented

Turkish coffee is poured in the kitchen into a fincan and brought out: one cup per pot, made for the guest. Bosnian coffee arrives as a set on a tray, with the džezva itself, small handleless cups called fildžani, sugar, lokum and water, and the drinkers pour for themselves.

That changes what the occasion is. A Turkish coffee is a cup. A Bosnian coffee is a sitting, refilled from the pot over a long conversation.

How to tell which you have been served

Widely documented

You rarely see the pot being filled, so the method is hard to observe directly. The service gives it away. If a single filled cup arrives from the kitchen and you were asked how sweet you wanted it, it was made the Turkish way. If a tray arrives with the pot still on it, a dish of sugar cubes and cups for you to fill, it is Bosnian. The caffeine follows the same logic: cup for cup the two are close, and what differs is that a Bosnian sitting usually runs to several cups.

Two claims not to repeat

Accounts differ

That one is twice as strong

Widely repeated, and unsupported by any measurement CoffeeHQ has found. The doses described for each overlap: roughly five to eight grams a cup for Turkish and four to seven for Bosnian. What does differ is the number of cups in a sitting.

That Turkish coffee does not foam

False. Foam is central to Turkish service and is deliberately spooned into each cup. The claim seems to arise from explaining the Bosnian method by contrast with something Turkish coffee is not.

What to do next

• Bosnian coffee in the atlas — The full record of the method, the tray and the etiquette of the sugar cube.
• Turkish coffee culture and preparation — The tradition this one is usually measured against, described in its own terms.
• Greek coffee versus Turkish coffee — The opposite case: two names, one method.