Arabic coffee - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Arabic coffee is a general name that refers to the way coffee

Coffee

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

is prepared in many Arab Gulf countries.

There are two main ways of preparing Arabic coffee. Traditional coffee brewing, more common in Najd

Najd

Najd or Nejd , literally Highland, is the central region of the Arabian Peninsula.-Boundaries :The Arabic word nejd literally means "upland" and was once applied to a variety of regions within the Arabian Peninsula...

and Hijaz, is flavor-rich with cardamom

Cardamom

Cardamom refers to several plants of the genera Elettaria and Amomum in the ginger family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to India and Bhutan; they are recognised by their small seed pod, triangular in cross-section and spindle-shaped, with a thin papery outer shell and small black seeds...

, and sometimes other spices like saffron (to give it a golden color), cloves, and sometimes cinnamon

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods...

. Some people add very little evaporated milk

Evaporated milk

Evaporated milk, also known as dehydrated milk, is a shelf-stable canned milk product with about 60% of the water removed from fresh milk. It differs from sweetened condensed milk, which contains added sugar. Sweetened condensed milk requires less processing since the added sugar inhibits ...

to slightly alter its color; however, this is rare. Note that this traditional method uses coffee beans that are not roasted, so it is a beverage entirely unlike what most people think of as coffee.

It has a special coffee pot called dalla

Dallah (coffee pot)

A dallah is a metal pot with a long spout designed specifically for making Arabic coffee. In particular, it is used in Saudi coffee tradition.-See also:*Cezve *Jebena *Arabic coffee*Saudi cuisine...

and the coffee cups are small but with no handle. The portions are very small, covering the bottom of the cup. It is served in houses and in good restaurants by specially clad waiters called gahwaji, and it is almost always accompanied with dates. It is always offered with the compliments of the house and is free. It is also offered at most social events like weddings and funerals.

Another method, more common in the Levant

Levant

The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...

, is based on the Turkish coffee

Turkish coffee

Turkish coffee is a method of preparing coffee where finely powdered roast coffee beans are boiled in a pot , with sugar according to taste, before being served into a cup where the dregs settle...

brewing method, at times with cardamom added, others plain or قهوة سادة qahwah sādah (lit. "plain coffee").

Turkish coffee

Turkish coffee

Turkish coffee is a method of preparing coffee where finely powdered roast coffee beans are boiled in a pot , with sugar according to taste, before being served into a cup where the dregs settle...

is also sometimes also referred to as "Arabic coffee". In one author's experience, this can refer to coffee prepared in the Turkish style, but with spices as described above.

The trees that produce Arabic coffee found in Syrian areas can measure over three meters in height (in contrast to the American plant, which only grows to a meter and a half). The leaves of the Arabic coffee plant are also comparatively large.