Coffee Culture

Just as the U.S. Congress renamed ‘French Fries’ “Freedom Fries” in 2003 after the French criticized the American invasion of Iraq, so too was Turkish coffee (τούρκικος καφές) renamed Greek coffee (ελληνικός καφές) after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. In fact, Turkish coffee also goes by the name Armenian coffee or Cypriot coffee, depending on which country you’re in.

Coffee originated in Ethiopia and Yemen, but was popularized by the Arabs, and later, the Turks.

The word coffee is derived from the Levantine Arabic qahwa or qahweh. When it was introduced to Constantinople in 1554 by Arabs from Damascus and Aleppo, the Turkish pronunciation of qahweh became kahve, and this Turkish word brought us the German word kaffe, the French and Spanish café, and finally, the English word, coffee.

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