Kaffee Schütz

Istanbul has been a coffee city since 1554. The first coffeehouses in the world opened here, in the alleys near the Grand Bazaar, where Ottoman merchants and scholars gathered to drink Turkish coffee from small porcelain cups and discuss everything that was happening in the empire. Coffee was a social technology before it was a beverage, and Istanbul invented the form.

Turkish coffee remains the canonical Istanbul drink. The preparation is simple and exact: finely ground coffee, sugar to taste, cold water, brought to a boil in a small copper or brass cezve, foam transferred to the cup, then the rest of the coffee. The grind is so fine it sediments at the bottom of the cup, and the dregs are not consumed. After drinking, the cup is overturned on the saucer and the patterns formed by the cooling grounds are sometimes read as fortunes.

The traditional kahvehane, the Turkish coffeehouse, is a particular kind of room. Tables are small. Backgammon and chess are played. Newspapers are read. Men sit for hours nursing a single Turkish coffee. The Mandabatmaz coffeehouse, in operation in Beyoğlu since 1965, holds the canonical kahvehane experience. The Pierre Loti café in Eyüp, named for the French novelist who frequented it, holds the canonical hilltop café with views over the Golden Horn.

The third wave arrived in Istanbul around 2012 and has built quietly. Kronotrop in Cihangir, founded in 2013, is the city's most respected specialty roaster. The flagship on Sıraselviler operates as a roastery and café and supplies many of the city's better cafés. Coffee Department on Ümit in Karaköy and Mandabatmaz's newer extensions have built a wider specialty network across European Istanbul. Asian Istanbul, particularly Kadıköy, has emerged as the most contemporary specialty district in the last five years.

The neighborhoods stratify by side of the Bosphorus. European Istanbul holds the heritage register through the historic peninsula and the early-twentieth-century neighborhoods of Beyoğlu and Cihangir. Karaköy and Galata hold a contemporary mix. Asian Istanbul, particularly Kadıköy and Moda, holds the densest specialty culture in the city, with a younger demographic and a faster-growing café count.

What surprises a visitor is the contrast. A Turkish coffee at Mandabatmaz, served in a small cup with a glass of water and a piece of Turkish delight, is the same drink served by Ottoman merchants in 1600. A pour-over at Kronotrop, served on a wooden tray with documentation about the bean's origin, is fully contemporary specialty coffee. Both happen in the same city, sometimes within walking distance, and both have devoted clientele who consider the other interesting but not essential.

The city's contribution to global coffee was the form itself. The coffeehouse as social infrastructure, the slow ritual, the conversation, the chess board, all originated here. Vienna learned the form from Istanbul after the Ottoman siege of 1683. Paris and London learned it from Vienna. The European café tradition has Turkish roots, even if the drink served at most of those cafés is now Italian.