Bedouin Coffee

Bedouin coffee is Arabic coffee as the desert’s nomadic peoples have long made it: roasted over a fire, pounded by hand, boiled with cardamom and poured, a little at a time and very hot, into tiny cups for guests. In Jordan it’s called qahwa sada, “welcome coffee”. It’s as much about hospitality as about the drink, with rules for who pours, who drinks first and how many cups you take. The wider Gulf tradition has its own page, Arabic coffee; this one follows the Bedouin way, mainly as it’s practised in Jordan.

The short version

• Made in front of the guests, from green beans to cup.
• Roasted in a pan over a wood fire, then pounded in a mehbash.
• Boiled with green cardamom in a long-spouted pot.
• The host tastes the first cup; guests drink up to three.
• Shake your cup when you’ve had enough.

What makes coffee “Bedouin”?

Wikipedia says that among the Bedouin of the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Egypt and Iraq, coffee is a major part of hospitality, and it’s traditionally prepared in front of the guest:

Step	Tool	Other names
Roasting	Mihmas, a flat, long-handled iron or bronze pan	Tawa, qallaiya
Pounding	Mihbaj or mehbash, a wooden, stone or brass mortar and pestle	Nijr, azzam, jurn
Boiling	Dallah, the coffee pot	Bakraj
Serving	Finjan, a small handleless cup	Feenghal

In the Levant, Wikipedia adds, Bedouin and rural communities brewing larger amounts often use a bakraj, a big long-spouted metal pot.

How is it made?

The travel site Fathom watched Abu Mohammed make coffee in his goat-hair tent in Jordan’s Dana Biosphere Reserve, guided by a local Bedouin, Suleiman:

1. The fire. Wood burns under the roasting pan; white broom and acacia are the woods most often used for roasting.
2. The roast. The green beans are roasted in the pan over the fire.
3. The pounding. The roasted beans go into the mehbash and are pounded with a pestle. The mehbash isn’t just a grinder, Suleiman explained: Bedouin play it almost like an instrument, and its beat is “the sound of hospitality”. When you hear it, guests are coming and everyone is welcome to join.
4. The boil. The ground coffee goes into the pot with green cardamom seeds and boils.
5. The first cup. The host pours and tastes the first cup, al heif, to show the coffee is good.
6. Serving. Tiny cups are passed round, guest by guest, with only a little coffee in each. “There shouldn’t be too much coffee in the cup, but it should be extremely hot,” Suleiman said. “Hot enough to scare your mustache.”

Fathom also notes that in this community coffee is only made by men, a tradition going back hundreds of years.

There’s no published dose or grind for Bedouin coffee, so this page doesn’t give one. Each family has its own way, and the coffee is judged by taste.

What are the rules for drinking it?

Custom	What it means
The host tastes first	The first cup, al heif, proves the coffee is fine; guests drink from the second, al keif
Elders and guests first	UNESCO’s listing says older people and guests are served first
Right hand only	The coffee is poured, and the cup taken, with the right hand
Clockwise	Wikipedia says the host or his eldest son moves clockwise among guests
Up to three cups	One, two or three is fine; never four, Fathom’s guide said
Shake to finish	Wiggle the cup to say you’re done; hand it back still to ask for more
Daymen	Wikipedia says the last cup is traditionally ended with daymen (“always”), wishing the host the means to keep serving coffee

What is qahwa murra?

Wikipedia describes a special bitter coffee, qahwa murra, served among Bedouin and rural communities, mainly on special occasions. It’s brewed for up to several hours from coarsely ground coffee and whole cardamom seeds, sometimes with a fermented coffee starter called khamira (“yeast”), and it’s always unsweetened. It’s a long way from a quick pot, and it’s made for gatherings rather than everyday guests.

Where does it fit with UNESCO’s Arabic coffee listing?

UNESCO lists Arabic coffee, a symbol of generosity as intangible cultural heritage, nominated by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar, with Jordan joining the listing. UNESCO notes that in Jordan, Arabic coffee is a symbol of generosity and hospitality, served in government offices and “always present in the homes of Jordanians, whether in Jordan or abroad”, and that gatherings often include poetry. Fathom’s guide put it in Bedouin terms: “We often write about coffee, from the color of the bean to the tools and the cups, and even the firewood we use for roasting.”

General guidance only. Roasting and boiling over an open fire means smoke, flames and very hot metal: keep the fire contained, never leave it unattended, and handle the pot with care.

Bedouin coffee vs other methods

• Arabic coffee: the wider Gulf tradition, with golden and darker roasts and the dallah.
• Lebanese coffee: the Levant’s finely ground coffee, boiled in a rakwe.
• Turkish coffee: finely ground coffee boiled in a cezve.
• Yemeni qishr: a drink made from coffee husks, from where coffee drinking began.

Explore every boiled method in the boiled chapter.