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Coffee: Caffeine hit, productivity booster, wedding custom
SBS Audio
01/11/202330:09
On wedding day in 2019, there was one thing he wasn’t looking forward to – the coffee.
Offered to the groom by the bride, Turkish tradition demands it be sprinkled with a good dose of salt.
"It's like a test," says Topuzlu, co-owner of Sydney's . "If he drinks that cup without saying anything – 'ah, this is a bad one, or I'm not gonna drink that', that means he accepts you.” It’s a sign he’s good marriage material: he'll stick by you and won't flinch in unpalatable situations.
Topuzlu's wedding ceremony took place in Istanbul, where he was also born, and he recalls bracing for that incoming serving of salt-spiked coffee.
"But I tasted it and it was like actual coffee," he says. There was no intense briny sting in the drink.
"I'm like, yeah, thank you – thank you, darling," the restaurateur recalls with a laugh.
It turned out his bride had been passionately debating her relatives in the kitchen: they had urged her to dump salt in his drink. "It's a tradition, we have to do it!" they said.
I was lucky enough not to taste it.
"Look, you can put it for your husbands," she responded. "I would rather let him enjoy his coffee."
"I was lucky enough not to taste it," says Topuzlu and laughs.
He might have dodged the salt, but more than four years later, the marriage is still strong.
And while his wedding day didn’t involve a briny brew, #saltincoffee is huge on TikTok. There are for videos exploring how a dash of sodium chloride might reduce the bitterness in your cup.
Some people are converts, lamenting how they made it to their or before realising this coffee-enhancing trick, while others are more of its promised effects. On the of my , Ickle Coffee roaster points out if your brew is bitter, some salt might help – but ultimately it's "like a hack for a bad coffee". Because if your beans are already good, "then you wouldn't want a hack to make it taste better", she adds.
And Topuzlu doesn't think your coffee needs a sodium chloride top-up either.
"I don't think it's a pleasant taste," he says and laughs. "It's a test to see the reaction of the groom [on his wedding day]…I don't think it should be regarded as a daily habit."
At Malika Bakehouse, if the Turkish coffee is a little strong for some diners' tastes, he has other suggestions.
"You can put sugar, you can add Turkish delight, there's so many other good things rather than salt in the coffee," he says.
You have it with your wife or your loved one.
Regardless of how you drink it, it's clear that Turkish coffee has a rich history: the caffeinated drink likely arrived in the and is traditionally brewed with a , a small copper pot. UNESCO officially recognised the significance of back in 2013, and these rituals continue to evolve.
Take the Turkish art of reading fortunes from coffee grounds, which , for instance.
"Every shape has a meaning," Topuzlu adds. His mother – who was taught the ritual by her mum – is an expert at interpreting people's futures from brewed leftovers. This custom has also been adapted to the smartphone age: an app that reads your fortune from a snap you've taken of your coffee cup has .
The Turkish language even has different words to distinguish the various ways the drink affects people's lives,
Fatigue coffee is for after work, when you’re exhausted and need that caffeine boost, Topuzlu explains. Whereas pleasure coffee might be reserved for sitting down to catch up on Turkish soap operas.
"Pleasure coffee is like, you know everything is finished – now you know housework is finished, you're sitting down watching something," he says. "You have it with your wife or your loved one." It's a lovely way to savour your day. But leave the salt shaker out of it, perhaps.
