Coffee trees may have arrived in the Arabian Peninsula as early as the sixth century.
By the fifteenth century, the plants were being used by Sufi monks to make qahwa, the ritual drink that was an essential part of their nightly prayers.
Coffee spread throughout the Islamic world, reaching Egypt in the 1500s. After the Ottoman Empire conquered Egypt in 1516, soldiers brought the new drink back to Turkey with them.
The invention of the cezve in Turkey during the sixteenth century allowed coffee to be prepared much more quickly.
The first coffee grinders were built in Turkey during the 16th Century.
The World Cezve/Ibrik Championship in 2011 helped to increase the awareness of this brew method amongst baristas working in the specialty coffee sector.
A brew ratio of between 1:8–1:8.5 is where Champion Ibrik brewer Sara Alali prefers almost all her recipes.
Preheating water to 60-65°C can be very time saving and appears to make very little difference to the overall extraction yields of cezve coffee.
As the slurry passes approximately 88°C, a thick layer of foam begins to form on the surface.
The cell structure of raghweh (foam) made in an ibrik tends to be a little far larger in diameter than the bubbles found in espresso crema.
A cezve can be made from a range of materials, including copper, brass, steel, aluminium, glass — even, occasionally, solid silver.
Pure silver melts at 960.8°C (1,861.4°F) so it is a far more stable choice of coating for copper cookware. Its melting point, far higher than cooking temperatures, compared with tin’s melting point of 231.97°C (449.5 °F).
A tinned cezve receiving regular use should be re-tinned once per year but a silver coating should last a lifetime according to Turkish Cezve maker, Emir Ali Enç
Cezveler can be cleaned and shined by rubbing them with Lemon and salt. Food safe silver polish can be used to shine the outsides.