#3 Coffee

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Armenians love their coffee. In Armenia, the food pyramid has Coffee at the very bottom of the pyramid providing a much needed healthy foundation to the Armenian nutritional system. And of course, it is not just any type of coffee. Armenians are not downing the Frappuccinos three or four times a day. Instead, they are drinking “Turkish Coffee.”

Now this is one of the paradoxes of the Armenian people—the national beverage is named after their much hated enemy. Some Armenians have re-branded the “Turkish Coffee” by calling it “Haygagan Soorj.” But we all know that whatever you call it, it’s still “Turkish Coffee.”

Some Armenians will swear that the only way to drink this bitter drug is to add sugar to it. Armenians are still at a loss as to what is the most authentic way of drinking this nectar of the gods. Do you drink it black or add two sugars? At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter because the drink is still bitter.

Though it looks like an espresso shot, Turkish Coffee is everything but that. You can see and feel the fine grounds of the coffee making their way through the gaps of your teeth and sliding down your throat like mud. Armenians would inject this if they could. They drink it four or five times a day. It is often drank with a cigarette (or two) and there is nearly always the customary reading of the cup upon completion where the Armenian realizes for the upteenth time that their is “trouble looming on the horizon.”