# Tunisian Orange Blossom Coffee

Source: https://dailyextraction.com/methods/tunisian-coffee/
Last updated: 2026-10-20

> Traditional Tunisian coffee is made like Turkish coffee: very finely ground coffee heated with water (and sugar, if you like) in a small pot called a zézoua until it foams. It's poured into small cups and scented with a few drops of orange blossom water, called zhar, or sometimes rose or geranium water.

## At a glance

- Grind: Powder (flour-like)
- Water temperature: Heated to a foam, not boiled hard
- Category: Boiled & Traditional (Boiled)
- Difficulty: Intermediate
- Origin: Tunisia
- Also known as: Tunisian coffee, qahwa arbi, zézoua coffee, coffee with orange blossom water

## Steps

1. **Put coffee and water in the zézoua**: Add very finely ground coffee, cold water and sugar if you like to a zézoua or cezve, and stir.
2. **Heat slowly**: Heat gently until the coffee foams up towards the rim, without letting it boil over.
3. **Pour**: Pour into small cups, letting a little foam fall into each.
4. **Add the blossom water**: Add a few drops of orange blossom water (zhar) to each cup, or rose or geranium water.
5. **Sit and sip**: Let the grounds settle for a moment, then drink it sitting down, slowly.

**Tunisian coffee** is Turkish-style coffee with a North African signature: brewed in a small pot called a **zézoua** and scented with a few drops of **orange blossom water**, which Tunisians call ***zhar***. Rose or geranium water are used too. Unlike much of North Africa, Tunisia is a **coffee** country rather than a tea one, and its cafés have been places for prayer, poetry and politics since Ottoman times. Here's how the coffee is made and how it's drunk.

## The short version

- **Turkish-style coffee**, very finely ground, heated in a **zézoua**.
- **A few drops of orange blossom water** (*zhar*) in each cup.
- **Sometimes rose or geranium water** instead.
- **Drunk sitting down**, slowly; "to go" doesn't fit the tradition.
- **Ottoman in origin**, with Andalusian and French touches.



## How is Tunisian coffee made?

Traditional Tunisian coffee "takes its inspiration from the coffee of the Turks", Sacred Footsteps explains, and the **zézoua** was modelled on the Turkish coffee pot. So the method is the [Turkish coffee](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/turkish-coffee/) method, with a scented finish:

1. **Add very finely ground coffee**, cold water and sugar (if you like) to the zézoua, and stir.
2. **Heat it slowly** until the coffee foams up towards the rim, without boiling over.
3. **Pour into small cups.**
4. **Add a few drops of orange blossom water** to each cup. One Tunisian told Middle East Eye that her grandfather drank his Turkish coffee "**with two drops of zahr**".
5. **Let it settle** for a moment, then sip slowly.

![Chart of coffee grind sizes from extra fine to extra coarse, with powder highlighted for Tunisian coffee](https://dailyextraction.com/diagrams/grind-size.svg#powder "Tunisian coffee is made like Turkish coffee, from coffee ground to a powder.")

In **Sousse**, Halal Xplorer found Café Al Kasbah in the medina still brewing coffee the **hot sand** way, with a small brass or copper pot set in hot sand, and serving it scented with rose water alongside *makroud*, a date-filled semolina pastry. See our page on [Turkish coffee on hot sand](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/turkish-coffee-on-sand/) for that technique.

## Why orange blossom water?

Tunisia is famous for it. Middle East Eye reports that over **2,500 tonnes of orange blossom** were picked around **Nabeul**, on the Cap Bon peninsula, in **2022**, and that around **3,000 families** there depend on the flower. Its water is Tunisia's "white gold", used in desserts, cooking, home remedies and coffee.

The sources give different origins for the habit of scenting coffee:

| Source | Origin of flower water in coffee |
| --- | --- |
| Sacred Footsteps | An **Andalusian** tradition |
| InTunis | **French colonists** refined coffee with geranium, rose or orange blossom water |
| Middle East Eye | An adaptation of **Levantine** traditions |

Coffee was also once served with **jasmine flowers**, *al fel wal yasmine*, for their scent as you drink, Sacred Footsteps adds. Middle East Eye mentions **geranium water** (*atarchya*), which can be sipped with coffee too.

## Tunisia's coffee houses

**The arrival.** Coffee came with the **Ottomans** around the 16th century, according to Sacred Footsteps and InTunis. A legend credits the Sufi saint **Abul Hassan al-Shadhili** (1196–1258) with bringing it earlier, and InTunis says coffee can still be called ***chedlia*** after him.

**The coffee houses.** The Ottoman Beys brought the coffee house with them, and by **1846**, more than half the coffee houses in Tunis were Turkish-owned. They became places of learning and poetry: **Malouf**, Tunisia's classical sung poetry, was cultivated there, and the hilltop **Al-Qahwa al-Aliya** in **Sidi Bou Said** is still one of the best-known Malouf coffee houses, Sacred Footsteps says.

**The custom.** Coffee is taken **seated and slowly**. Sacred Footsteps describes men leaving the mosque after dawn prayers and going straight to the café next door for coffee, croissants and the newspaper.

*General guidance only. Use orange blossom water sparingly, a few drops is plenty, and take care with the hot pot.*

## Tunisian coffee vs other methods

- **[Turkish coffee](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/turkish-coffee/):** the method Tunisian coffee is built on.
- **[Lebanese coffee](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/lebanese-coffee/):** another Levantine take, often with cardamom.
- **[Moroccan spiced coffee](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/moroccan-spiced-coffee/):** North Africa's spiced home coffee.
- **[Arabic coffee (qahwa)](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/arabic-qahwa/):** light-roast coffee with cardamom.

Explore every boiled method in the [boiled chapter](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/boiled/).

## FAQs

### What is a zézoua?

The Tunisian coffee pot, modelled on the Turkish coffee pot (cezve), in which traditional Tunisian coffee is brewed.

### Why do Tunisians put orange blossom water in coffee?

For its scent. Sacred Footsteps calls it an Andalusian tradition; InTunis credits French colonists with refining coffee with geranium, rose or orange blossom water. Tunisia's Cap Bon, around Nabeul, is famous for distilling it.

### How much orange blossom water goes in?

Just a few drops. One Tunisian told Middle East Eye that her grandfather drank his Turkish coffee "with two drops of zahr".

### When did coffee come to Tunisia?

With the Ottomans, around the 16th century. A legend credits the 13th-century Sufi saint Abul Hassan al-Shadhili with bringing it earlier, and coffee is sometimes still called chedlia after him.

### Is Tunisia a coffee or a tea country?

Coffee. Sacred Footsteps notes that, unlike much of North Africa, Tunisia favours coffee as its hot drink of choice, and the café is a central part of social life.

## Sources

- [Tunisia’s floral waters: why Tunisians love them](https://www.middleeasteye.net/discover/tunisia-floral-waters-why-tunisians-love)
- [The nectar of poets: the Tunisian art of drinking coffee](https://sacredfootsteps.com/2017/11/11/the-nectar-of-poets-the-tunisian-art-of-drinking-coffee/)
- [Coffee culture](https://2021.intunis.net/coffee-culture/)
- [Experiencing Tunisian Arabic sand coffee in Sousse](https://halalxplorer.com/experiencing-tunisian-arabic-sand-coffee-in-sousse/)