Bosnian Coffee!

Coofffeee! Did someone say coffee? Coffee is definitely my drug. Coffee is my motivation in the morning, like literally without coffee I don’t know how I’d get my day going. When it comes to how I like my coffee, well I’m a bit picky there- and I mean I have every right to be. Everyone should be entitled to have their coffee anyway they’d like.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country full of history and many secrets. Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia, and I’m pretty sure if I were to ask a few people what they know about Sarajevo or Bosnia, in general, it would probably be something connected to the war. Not one person would say well- their coffee.

Believe it or not Bosnians take their coffee serious. It may not be Italy where cappuccinos and espressos originated, it may not be Brazil where the most coffee beans are produced, it’s neither the coffee capital like Melbourne, Australia and it’s definitely not Vienna, with its famous and classy Viennese coffee houses-but it is Sarajevo.  Walk through the labyrinthine alleyways and you will smell coffee all around.

Ask any local what they love to do in their spare time and they all will say drink coffee. The locals even have special names for when the coffee is drunk, for example you can have a ‘dočekuša’ which is coffee to welcome guests, a ‘pričusa’ the most popular kind-the daily coffee for gossips or talks in general. Although the size of the cup is always the same. The traditional way to have coffee is out of a ‘fildžan’ and a copper ‘džezva’.

Visit a traditional coffee house in Sarajevo, Baščaršija to be exact, and sit down and orders yourself a coffee. They will roast the coffee beans for you into a fine powder. Then they will take džezva (a special copper pot) gently heat it (beforehand they have added a few spoons of the fine coffee powder) then they will heat it up just a bit, add boiling water and wait for the coffee to be brought up to a boil. Then the coffee is on its way to your table- accompanied by sugar cubes and rahat lokum (a Bosnian sweet similar to a Turkish delight).

The coffee is at your table, you will take the sugar cube and put it on your lounge- yes, you got that right- do not add the sugar into the cup rather sip on the coffee gently, while the sugar cube dissolves in your mouth. Mmmmm now, that’s coffee!

One thing many people will confuse Bosnian coffee with, is Turkish coffee. Do not ever say they are the same! Because, trust me they’re not. After all don’t the Turks love tea?

Coffee in Bosnia is consumed even five times a day! Now, that’s a lot of coffee!