The role of water in contemporary coffee preparation has been the subject of much research over the past decade. Maxwell Dashwood and Christopher Hendon is a seminal work on the subject, now in its second edition. Brands like Third wave water, Pentair, Lotus Waterand many others have changed the way coffee lovers think about water at home and in cafes. Reverse osmosis has ceased to be the domain of super geeks – or the stage scenario of barista competitions – and has become increasingly normal in cafes and thoughtful home arrangements around the world.
What if we told you that the obsession with the fragile dance of water and coffee is nothing novel? In the novel Sprudge Special Projects feature, writer and coffee specialist Duygu Kurtuluş (z Get to know the Coffee Laboratory in Istanbul) takes us to an earlier era of coffee and water, in the interior of the Topkapı Palace in the 16th-century Ottoman Empire. Thought you were a bit of a nerd when it comes to coffee water? You have nothing against these people.
For the palace, coffee was never just a drink. At Topkapı, coffee was a performance involving dedicated staff, protocol, and ritual. (the main coffee maker) and the servants under his command worked in pristine order: hearths, roasting pans, finely ground bronze grinders, elegant jugs and cups in silver cases. And behind all this scene – more decisive than one would expect from that era – everything was shaped by one still element: water.
It is believed that from the beginning of the 16th century, the palace’s main source of water for brewing was Gümüşsuyu, in the Eyüp district. This was no ordinary spring. It was headed by a special corps known as Gümüşsuyu Ocağı, whose sole task was to draw water there and deliver it to the palace. Water was filled into immense leather bottles, transported by boat to Sarayburn, and then delivered directly to the palace’s cafeteria.
Read “The Secret of Turkish Coffee? It’s Been in the Water Since the 16th Century” in Sprudge Special Projects
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