Dibek Coffee

Dibek coffee (dibek kahvesi) is Turkish coffee made the way it was before coffee mills: the roasted beans are pounded with a pestle in a dibek, a large stone or wooden mortar, rather than ground. The pounding leaves coarser, oilier grounds, and the result is creamier and smoother than ordinary Turkish coffee. Today it’s often sold as a blend, with mastic, cocoa, milk or spices. A few shops still pound it by hand: one on Cunda Island uses a 150-year-old stone and strikes it 10,000 times a day. Here’s what makes it different and how to brew it.

The short version

• Pounded, not milled, in a stone, wooden or marble mortar.
• Coarser grounds, creamier cup, often lighter in colour.
• Often blended with mastic, cocoa, milk, date syrup or spices.
• Brewed like Turkish coffee in a cezve, or sometimes in the cup.
• Still pounded by hand in a few shops in İzmir and Ayvalık.

What is a dibek?

A mortar. Before modern mills, Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi explains, Turkish coffee was ground either in a havan, a small cast-bronze mortar, or in a dibek, a large mortar “handmade from wood, marble or stone”, using pestles or mallets. Küre Encyclopedia says the word comes from Arabic and means “pounding”, and Saki notes that grinding coffee in a dibek was common in Anatolian villages before coffee mills arrived.

How is dibek coffee different?

	Turkish coffee	Dibek coffee
Grinding	Milled to a fine powder	Pounded in a mortar
Grounds	Very fine	Coarser (Saki, Küre)
Texture	Thick, with foam	Creamier and smoother (Saki, Küre)
Colour	Dark	Often lighter (Küre)
Extras	Sugar, sometimes cardamom	Often mastic, cocoa, milk, date syrup, menengiç or spices

Küre adds that dibek grounds settle more slowly in the cup, and that the coffee stays warm longer because it’s so dense. Both Saki and Küre say the pounding keeps more of the beans’ oils; that’s a common claim rather than a measured one.

How do you make dibek coffee?

Like Turkish coffee. Saki’s method for a dibek blend:

1. Add 1 to 2 teaspoons of dibek coffee to a cezve with water (and sugar, if you like).
2. Heat slowly over a low flame until a foam forms.
3. Pour gently into a small cup.
4. Serve with a glass of water, and often Turkish delight.

Some cafés do it differently. In Gaziantep, Turkish Travel Blog found the Tarihi Gümrük Hanı serving fincanda pişen Osmanlı dibek kahvesi, “Ottoman dibek coffee cooked in the cup”, made in the cup itself rather than in a cezve.

Where is it still pounded by hand?

İzmir. In the historic Kemeraltı market, Anadolu Agency reports, third-generation coffee seller İlyas Gönen still sells coffee pounded in his grandfather’s dibek stone. His grandfather pounded it by hand; in his father’s time the family had Turkey’s first dibek-pounding machine built, combining tradition with technology.

Cunda Island, Ayvalık. At the historic Taş Kahve, the third generation of a family from Crete pounds coffee in a 150-year-old dibek stone their grandparents brought during the population exchange. Anadolu Agency says the beans are struck 10,000 times a day with 30 kg pestles, then sieved and brewed in brass cezves.

Elsewhere, Küre notes, dibek coffee is served especially in Southeastern and Central Anatolia at weddings, holidays and when guests visit, and ready-made dibek blends are sold in supermarkets.

General guidance only. Some dibek blends contain milk powder, so check the label if you avoid dairy, and take care with the hot cezve.

Dibek coffee vs other methods

• Turkish coffee: the classic, milled to a powder.
• Turkish coffee on hot sand: brewed in a tray of hot sand.
• Greek coffee: the briki version.
• Armenian soorj: coffee made in a jazzve.

Explore every boiled method in the boiled chapter.