# Turek & Plujka (Glass Coffee) Source: https://dailyextraction.com/methods/turek-plujka/ Last updated: 2026-10-20 > Turek is the Czech and Slovak way of making coffee by putting ground coffee straight into a cup and pouring hot water over it, with no pot or filter. The grounds sink to the bottom. Poland's version, served in a glass, is nicknamed plujka, "spit-it-out", after the grounds you end up with in your mouth. ## At a glance - Ratio: 1 to 2 teaspoons per cup - Grind: Fine - Water temperature: 92–96 °C - Brew time: about 4:00 - Category: Immersion & Steeping (Immersion) - Difficulty: Beginner - Origin: Czech Republic - Also known as: Czech turek, plujka, kawa po turecku, turecká káva, coffee grounds in a glass ## Steps 1. **Warm the cup**: Rinse the cup or glass with hot water so the coffee stays hot. 2. **Add the coffee**: Put 1 to 2 teaspoons of finely ground coffee in the cup. 3. **Pour half the water**: Pour in water at about 92 to 96°C, not boiling, until the cup is half full, and let the coffee bloom for a few seconds. 4. **Top up**: Pour in the rest of the water gently in a circular motion. 5. **Let it settle**: Leave it for a few minutes so the grounds sink, then drink carefully, leaving the sludge at the bottom. **Turek** in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and **plujka** in Poland, is coffee at its most basic: **ground coffee put straight into a cup or glass**, **hot water poured over it**, and a wait while the grounds **sink to the bottom**. No pot, no filter, no machine. It's often called "Turkish coffee" (*turecká káva*, *kawa po turecku*), though it has almost nothing to do with real Turkish coffee. In Poland it earned the nickname *plujka*, "spit-it-out", after the grounds that end up between your teeth. Here's how to make it, how to make it better, and why it became the coffee of the Eastern Bloc. ## The short version - **Ground coffee in a cup or glass**, hot water on top. - **Wait a few minutes** for the grounds to settle. - **Not boiling water**: about 92 to 96°C tastes better. - **Leave the sludge** at the bottom. - **A communist-era staple** that's still made at home, in pubs and at kiosks. ## How do you make turek? The everyday method is simply coffee in a cup and water from the kettle. The Slovak news agency **SITA** gives these steps for a better cup: 1. **Warm the cup.** A warm cup keeps the coffee's temperature steady. 2. **Add 1 to 2 teaspoons of finely ground coffee**, ideally a grind sold for pour-on coffee. 3. **Use water at about 92 to 96°C, not boiling.** Boiling water can give the coffee a burnt bitterness. 4. **Pour half the water first**, and let the coffee "bloom" for a few seconds. 5. **Top up** gently with a circular pour. Then wait. The Czech coffee seller **Green Plantation** suggests leaving it no longer than **about four minutes** and then separating the coffee from the grounds, for example by pouring it into a second cup, rather than letting it stew. ![Chart of coffee grind sizes from extra fine to extra coarse, with fine highlighted for turek](https://dailyextraction.com/diagrams/grind-size.svg#fine "Turek is usually made with finely ground coffee, which sinks as it settles.") ## Why is it called Turkish coffee? Because the grounds stay in the cup, as they do in real [Turkish coffee](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/turkish-coffee/). But the method is different. As SITA explains, traditional Turkish coffee is **very finely ground** coffee heated **slowly with water in a cezve** (*džezva*), rising gently towards the boil without boiling. Turek is just poured, not heated. Expats.cz puts it bluntly: Czech-style turek "has no connection to a proper Turkish coffee". Rzeczpospolita says the same of plujka: the name "Turkish-style coffee" has "little to do with brewing it in Turkey". ## How did turek and plujka become so common? **In Czechoslovakia**, Expats.cz describes turek as "a holdover from the communist era", which gained popularity after the war "when private roasters were nationalized and quality coffee was scarce". Green Plantation adds that cafés, restaurants and roasters were all nationalised, coffee machines were beyond many people's budgets, and the coffee in the jar was usually a cheap blend, mostly **Robusta** with a little **Arabica**. Pouring water on grounds needed no equipment at all. **In communist Poland**, cafés were rare. Rzeczpospolita quotes one coffee lover: if you wanted to invite friends for coffee in those days, you "could drink a plujka at the railway station" or splash out on a hotel restaurant. Coffee drinkers split into two camps: fans of plujka, and fans of **instant coffee**, which quickly won. Plujka even has a place in history. At Warsaw's tiny **Café Snob**, the PIW publishing house buffet at **Foksal 17**, coffee was made "Turkish-style" in **glasses with grounds** that stuck to your teeth, Super Biznes reports. **Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir** sat at its tables in **1962**, and the **"Letter of 34"** intellectuals to the communist leader Gomułka was written there in **1964**. After March 1968, the authorities closed the café and had it walled up. ## Is it still drunk today? Yes. Expats.cz wishes its readers a happy International Coffee Day with "pour yourself a turek", and Green Plantation notes that despite drip brewers and French presses, turek "still holds its place of honour" in Czech homes. It's rarely served in cafés any more, but you'll still find it at home, in pubs and at kiosks. *General guidance only. Take care with hot water, and sip gently: the grounds settle, but they don't disappear.* ## Turek vs other methods - **[Turkish coffee](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/turkish-coffee/):** very fine coffee heated in a cezve, the real thing. - **[Coffee in a teapot](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/tea-pot-coffee/):** steeped, then strained, the English way. - **[Cowboy coffee](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/cowboy-coffee/):** grounds and water together in a pot. - **[Coffee cupping](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/cupping/):** the professional version of grounds in a cup. Explore every immersion method in the [immersion chapter](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/immersion/). ## Words used in this guide - [Fines](https://dailyextraction.com/glossary/fines/): Fines are the very small, dust-like particles that every grinder produces alongside the main grind. - [Bloom](https://dailyextraction.com/glossary/bloom/): The bloom is the first small pour of water in a brew, usually 2–3 times the weight of the coffee, followed by a 30–45 second pause. - [Robusta](https://dailyextraction.com/glossary/robusta/): Robusta is the common name for Coffea canephora, one of the two coffee species grown for most of the world's coffee; the other is arabica. - [Steeping](https://dailyextraction.com/glossary/steeping/): Steeping is leaving ground coffee to sit in water so its flavour dissolves out, as in a French press or cold brew. - [Immersion vs percolation](https://dailyextraction.com/glossary/immersion-vs-percolation/): Immersion brewing steeps all the coffee in all the water at once, as a French press does. ## FAQs ### Is Czech turek the same as Turkish coffee? No. Real Turkish coffee is very finely ground coffee heated slowly with water in a cezve. Turek is simply ground coffee in a cup with hot water poured over it. Czech and Slovak sources stress it has almost nothing in common with Turkish coffee except the name. ### What does plujka mean? Roughly "spit-it-out" in Polish, because the grounds ended up between your teeth and had to be spat out. It was also called kawa po turecku, "Turkish-style coffee". ### Why was turek so popular in Czechoslovakia? Expats.cz describes it as a holdover from the communist era: after the war, private roasters were nationalised and good coffee was scarce, and few people had coffee machines. ### How do you make turek taste better? Use water at about 92 to 96°C rather than boiling, warm the cup first, and pour in two stages. Green Plantation also suggests separating the coffee from the grounds after about four minutes. ### Is turek still drunk today? Yes. It's rarely served in cafés now, but it's still made at home, in pubs and at kiosks across the Czech Republic and Slovakia. ## Sources - [Coffee Week kicks off throughout the Czech Republic today](https://www.expats.cz/czech-news/article/coffee-week-kicks-off-throughout-the-czech-republic-today) - [Ako zaliať instantnú a tureckú kávu?](https://sita.sk/byvaniehrou/ako-zaliat-instantnu-a-turecku-kavu-ludia-v-tom-neustale-robia-chyby-a-potom-im-kava-nechuti/) - [Do you know why you should never drink Czech turk?](https://www.greenplantation.com/a/do-you-know-why-you-should-never-drink-czech-turk) - [Jak kawa stała się dla Polaków symbolem statusu](https://www.rp.pl/plus-minus/art2268551-jak-kawa-stala-sie-dla-polakow-symbolem-statusu) - [Quiz PRL: krem sułtański i kawa z fusami](https://superbiz.se.pl/wiadomosci/quiz-prl-krem-sultanski-i-kawa-z-fusami-jak-kawiarnie-ratowaly-od-szarosci-prl-u-t-aa-W2Me-C14E-rENi.html)