Tunisian Orange Blossom Coffee

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 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.

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 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: the method Tunisian coffee is built on.
• Lebanese coffee: another Levantine take, often with cardamom.
• Moroccan spiced coffee: North Africa’s spiced home coffee.
• Arabic coffee (qahwa): light-roast coffee with cardamom.

Explore every boiled method in the boiled chapter.