A few months back, I was on the hunt for the best Armenian Jazve coffee and I found myself at a standstill with products labeled “Turkish” coffee. For those who are familiar with the rift between the two, you know that as an Armenian, that is not the route one is going to take. So, I put my search aside and continued to assimilate to the world around me, while exploring coffee culture around the world.
On one pleasant day scrolling through Facebook, I saw an ad that said: “Bring a Taste of Armenia to Your Home” and immediately clicked with pure joy. I was greeted with Armenian names on the coffee bags like “Aravod” which means morning, and “Tati & Papi” which means Grandma & Grandpa. My ultimate excitement was when I thought about how quickly Kaffa Co. is going to storm the coffee market with its rich taste of Armenian coffee.
The meaning behind the blend above represents the symbol of Artsakh known as “We Are Our Mountains”, which emphasizes the inseparable feeling Armenians have to the lands. With the strong meaning behind this, the beauty lies in the fact that Tati/Papi is always sold in pair!
Pro tip: Tati is a more mild/medium blend and Papi is a stronger blend, so make sure to taste them on different days. This ensures you get the full taste and notice the difference in the blends.
All the blends are made in Armenia, and available for international shipping including free shipping in the US! Kaffe Co provides coffee lovers with a wide selection of Armenian coffee blends; and even three instant coffees for whipped coffee lovers. This product is not going to disappoint. No need for a fancy machine, all you need is an Armenian Coffee Pot (Jazve) to make the coffee.
How To Make Armenian Jazve Coffee
1. Pour Cold Filtered Water into your coffee pot (Jazve)
2. Add 1 full teaspoon of coffee for each cup of water, and sugar to your liking
3. Stir once to combine the coffee and water
4. Bring the coffee to a simmer over medium to high heat,
5. Remove from heat as soon as the coffee starts to foam and rise
****Do not allow the coffee to reach a boil!
Cultural Things to Know
Sugar: Adding sugar to your Armenian coffee is such a debate in our family and many Armenian families. Some love the bitter sugarless taste, and others prefer to add a spoon or two.
Boil Technique: When your coffee comes to a simmer, some believe, taking it on and off a couple of times is the trick to delicious coffee. Let me know what you think!
Coffee Readings: In Armenian culture after drinking your soorj (Armenian for coffee), you are told to flip your cup over and let the coffee drip to your saucer. After a few minutes “Tati” will begin reading your fortune through the lines of your coffee cup.
Hidden Meanings: In the olden days, making soorj for a suitor had a hidden meaning to it. If you made the coffee bitter that means you didn’t like the suitor; and if you serve the coffee sweet that is your way of expressing approval.
Where To Get Armenian Coffee?
If you are located in the U.S., then you are in luck, since you benefit from free shipping with Kaffa Co. Armenian Coffee. All international shipping, including Canada, Europe, South America, and Australia gets a half-price discount on shipping.
Comment below and let us know what coffee blend you plan on trying!
I love all things coffee and love getting some more knowledge when it comes to coffee from different regions. Would love to add Armenian coffee to my repertoire. Great post!
This is so interesting! I especially loved the mention of the hidden meaning and significance of coffee in Armenian culture 🙂
Never heard of this before, it was interesting to read. Love learning about different cultures
What a great touch of culture – love the instructions provided. That’s one of the worst parts of returning home. You get to love the food of a certain place and when you return home, you just can’t get the same ingredients the way you did while traveling.
Yum this looks great, I love coffee. Is it strong like a Turkish coffee? It looks like it might be which makes me think I would really love it.
Great post! I’ll have to make this one day for my coffee obsessed boyfriend!!
I’ll try the mild version–with sugar! I’m sort of a coffee wimp 🙂
1. Pour Cold Filtered Water into your coffee pot (Jazve). Jazve? No way, that is the Turkish name. The Armenian term is “soordge-ehp” as in soordge yehpehl.
Actually, as a linguist, I can assure you that the word is not Turkish at all.
The origin of the word is actually the Arabic word of jezwa (جَِذوة) which means ember. Many countries/languages, including Armenian, use variations of this word.
In Bosnia, it’s džezva. In Tunisia, it’s zezwa(ززوة). In Serbia, it’s džezva (џезва). In Macedonia, it’s ǵezve(ѓезве), and so on… The Armenian variation of it is Jazve (ջազվե), but Armenians also use the word serjep (սրճեփ) which as you might know, translates to Coffee Maker.
Thank you for this article- very informative
I really appreciate these suggestions because I love coffee and I love Eastern traditions! I had coffee in Bosnia, I think the Turkish one, and I really enjoyed it!
Wow I definitely learned something new, I was not familiar with Sooj at all but I would love to try it sometime.
I had never heard of Armenian Jazve coffee before. I enjoy coffee tasting so this is a must-try for me!