European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 13, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Living today Coffee break byzantine version is change of Pace from Normal brew by Sharon Hudgins special to stripes i was thrilled to re Eive an assignment to work in a country that i had not visited i would be there for two mainly on the Island of with a Light workload and plenty of time for to prepare for the i bought several Well known guidebooks in Hope of overcoming my considerable Lack of knowledge about that i started by Reading the sections on food and something that was mentioned in All three of my famous guidebooks and which i paid Little attention to at the time was the Type of Coffee served in i should state right away that in not your typical american Coffee Drinker who guzzles Large cups of the brew from morning until even drinking it with in addicted to my own Coffee preferences run to French or italian Cipresso after meals and an occasional cup of cafe a cafe con or when i can consume it in its country of therefore i want very interested in what the travel writers had to say about Coffee in Greece especially because they made it sound so All my guidebooks agreed that greek Coffee was so unappealing to Western palates that it was practically they advised travellers to avoid greek Coffee and to ask for instant nescafe instead with the warning that even instant Coffee was pretty terrible in my first weekend in the weather was unbearably so i stopped at a sidewalk cafe for some liquid it was late and i didst want Beer or wine to add to the i was dying for a huge Glass of iced but that cultural Gap Between the United states and Europe has yet to be several people at other tables had Large glasses of cold Black liquid with Light Brown foam on it looked like guinness but when i spotted ice cubes in those i knew id stumbled onto something drinkable in hot i pointed to the other tables and asked the waiter to bring me to my the cold beverage was iced Sweet a drink had never bothered to and it was extremely refreshing in the White heat of iced Coffee quickly became my favorite non alcoholic drink in not wanting to use the Pointa Dorder method of requesting i looked up the term for iced Coffee in my greek Berlitz informed me that it was Palomeno asking a greek waiter for look Ai your like youre crazy and then youll be Back to Point and order the single word used in Greece for this drink is the French term for very occasionally youll see the drink listed on a menu As kafe a month after when i was still trying to get by with husband and i stopped at a tiny a Funcion coffeehouse in a Small Village on the South coast of i was the Only woman in the place Kawene Waare traditionally for men Only but because we were foreigners who didst yet know the rules of the my presence was i ordered two Palomeno waiter looked As if he and a few minutes later we were served two of the smallest cups of hot Coffee that i had Ever each accompanied by a Glass of cold since we  communicate with the we decided to try the drinks that had been set before it was our first taste of real greek Coffee very Sweet and we were the stuff was delicious we cursed the for leading us greek Coffee might be unpalatable to drinkers of the watered Down american but to our taste buds the greek version was even a step above French and italian from then we drank it As a mid morning or lat afternoon and As the perfect ending to any greek shortly after we discovered the taste of greek we Learned to make it on the Road to we were delayed for an hour while bulldozers cleared away a huge landslide that blocked the to pass the time in a typical greek we sat outdoors at a nearby truck Stop and ordered greek to relieve his my fidgety husband went into the Kitchen to see How the Coffee was since that Hes been the greek Coffee maker in our Coffee is a beverage that first became popular in the Middle then was introduced into from during the reign of Suleiman the magnificent in the 16th in those regions that were once part of the ottoman the drink is still referred to As turkish the term in Turkey is Turk and most Balkan and slavic countries the drink is known As Turska greeks prefer to Call it Elli Nikos greek stripes photo i once asked a greek Friend from Thessaloniki How i could resolve this linguistic inconsistency without offending anyone political or nationalistic in other which was the Correct term greek Coffee or turkish Coffee i would say byzantine he replied with a sly he should have been a Diplomat instead of a i still refer to it As greek Coffee when in in and turkish Coffee although the subtlety of byzantine Coffee appeals to in both Greece and the serving and drinking of Coffee Are highly ritualized surrounded by ceremony and Coffee is present at family holidays and whenever guests for any on any they Are immediately offered men sit in often for much of the sipping Small talking politics and playing and business including bargaining in that part of the world probably  be conducted without the cups of Coffee that inevitably accompany to make byzantine you must Start with dark roast Coffee ground into a Fine contrary to some Peoples it is not instant turkish grind Coffee can be purchased at most Good Coffee of course the Best Coffee is ground just before you brew in Greece and you can buy ornately decorated Coffee Grinders made out of which do a Good Job of pulverizing the Coffee the Coffee is boiled in a specially shaped called a transliterated Apriki in a Ceva in and a Raki in the pots come in different sizes one stripes Magazine june 7965