Turkish Coffee substitute

Best substitute

Instant espresso powder

Use the same amount by volume in baking and desserts as the turkish coffee you are replacing

Best for cakes, brownies and cookies

Close match

In a cake, ice cream or dessert, instant espresso powder is the best substitute at 1:1 by volume, because it dissolves completely and leaves no grit, which is the whole reason a recipe specifies Turkish coffee in the first place. Instant coffee granules also work at 1:1 if you crush them and dissolve them in a teaspoon of hot water first. If you actually want to brew Turkish coffee, no other product will do it: take espresso-grind coffee and grind it again until it feels like flour. Turkish coffee is a grind and a method, not a special bean, and the fineness is doing the work, both in the cup, where it creates the foam and body, and in a batter, where it delivers deep roast flavour with no texture.

Other turkish coffee substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Espresso-grind coffee, reground until powdery
Close match
Use the same amount
The real answer for making the drink: take the finest coffee you can buy and make it finer.
What changes
Best for
brewing in a cezve or ibrik, Turkish coffee as a drink, recipes that specify Turkish coffee by name, Greek and Arabic coffee
Run espresso-grind coffee through a blade or spice grinder in ten-second bursts for a minute or two, letting it cool between bursts, until it clumps like flour and holds a fingerprint when you press it. This genuinely works, though the particle size will be a little less even than commercial Turkish grind, so the foam is thinner and slightly more sediment ends up in your mouth at the last sip.
3Instant coffee granules
Different taste
Use the same amount crushed and dissolved in 1 tsp hot water first
The most likely thing already in your cupboard, and perfectly serviceable in baking.
What changes
Best for
cakes and batters, frostings, puddings and mousses, coffee syrups
Cheaper instant coffee tastes flatter and more acrid than espresso powder, with a slightly burnt-caramel edge, so use a little less if your brand is harsh and taste the batter. Always dissolve the granules first: dropped in dry they leave brown speckles and bitter pockets. It is not a way to make Turkish coffee, since there is nothing to brew and no grounds to make foam.
4Strong brewed espresso or very strong filter coffee
Different texture
Use 1 shot, about 1 oz or 30 ml, for every 1 tsp Turkish coffee grounds, minus that liquid elsewhere
Using liquid coffee where the recipe wanted powder, which works if you rebalance the recipe.
What changes
Best for
soaking syrups for cakes, ice cream bases and custards, sauces and glazes, drinks and cocktails
The flavour is excellent and fresher than any instant, but you are adding water to a recipe that did not ask for it, so subtract the same volume of milk or water from the other liquids. In a cake batter more than about a quarter cup of extra liquid will loosen the crumb noticeably. Do not use this where the recipe wanted dry powder folded into flour, such as a dry rub or a dusting.
5Turkish coffee plus cardamom, or the reverse
Close match
Use ⅛ tsp finely ground cardamom for every 2 tsp coffee
Worth knowing because a great many recipes calling for Turkish coffee are really asking for the coffee-and-cardamom flavour combination.
What changes
Best for
Turkish and Arabic desserts, coffee cakes and semolina cakes, ice cream, brewing in a cezve
Turkish coffee is often brewed with a pod of cardamom, and Arabic coffee leans on it heavily. If you are substituting instant espresso powder into a Middle Eastern recipe, this pinch does more to make it taste right than any change of coffee product will. Grind the cardamom seeds fine or the dessert will contain crunchy fragments.
6The honest case: nothing substitutes for the grind
Taste and texture differ
Least-bad option: reground espresso coffee, brewed slow and never boiled
If the recipe is a cup of Turkish coffee rather than a dessert, the substitution question has only one real answer.
What changes
Best for
understanding why your cezve coffee failed, deciding what to buy
Drip or French press grind will not work: the particles are too big to suspend, so you get thin coffee with sludge at the bottom and no foam, and running it through an espresso machine or a drip filter clogs the basket and over-extracts into something bitter. Powder-fine grounds are what create the crema-like foam and the thick body. If you cannot grind that fine, buy a small bag of pre-ground Turkish coffee, which is inexpensive and keeps for months sealed.

What is Turkish Coffee?

Turkish Coffee is Turkish coffee, or Turk kahvesi, is coffee ground to a powder far finer than espresso, usually from a medium-roast arabica, and traditionally simmered unfiltered in a small pot called a cezve so the grounds stay in the cup.

Cooking tips

Test the grind by feel, not by sight. Proper Turkish coffee grind behaves like flour or cocoa: it clumps, it dusts your fingers, and it holds the shape of a fingerprint. If it still feels sandy, keep grinding. Many home burr grinders cannot reach this fineness at all, which is why pre-ground Turkish coffee is the norm even in Turkey.
Never boil it. For the drink, use one heaped teaspoon per small cup of cold water, stir in the sugar at the start because you cannot stir it later, and heat slowly until the foam rises just to the rim. Boiling collapses the foam and turns the cup bitter and thin.
In baking, decide whether the coffee is a flavour or a liquid. Dry powder goes in with the flour or the sugar; brewed coffee replaces some of the milk or water. Mixing the two approaches by accident is how a cake ends up dense and wet.
Coffee makes chocolate taste more like chocolate, which is why so many recipes include a teaspoon of it. If you leave it out of a chocolate cake nothing collapses, but the chocolate reads flatter, so it is worth substituting rather than skipping.
Let the grounds settle. Whether you drink it from a cezve or use it in a dessert base, give it two or three minutes before pouring or straining, and leave the last centimetre in the pot.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave Turkish coffee out of a recipe?

In a chocolate cake or brownie where it is a teaspoon or two, yes, and the cake still works, it just tastes less deeply chocolatey. In a Turkish coffee cake, coffee ice cream or coffee buttercream, the coffee is the flavour, so substitute rather than omit: instant espresso powder at the same volume is the simplest fix. If the recipe used brewed Turkish coffee as liquid, replace it with the same volume of milk or water.

Is Turkish coffee a special kind of bean?

No. It is a grind and a brewing method. The beans are usually medium-roast arabica, sometimes with a little robusta for foam, but the defining feature is that they are milled to a powder finer than espresso so the coffee can be simmered unfiltered and still taste smooth. That is why the answer to most substitution questions here is about grinders rather than about origins.

Can I use espresso instead of Turkish coffee?

For a dessert, yes: instant espresso powder is the best swap, and a shot of brewed espresso works if you subtract the liquid elsewhere. For the drink, no. Espresso grounds are too coarse to suspend properly in a cezve, and Turkish grind is far too fine for an espresso machine, where it chokes the basket and pulls a harsh, over-extracted shot.

Is Turkish coffee stronger or more caffeinated?

It tastes stronger because it is unfiltered and served in a very small cup with all the fine particles suspended in it, which gives a thick, intense mouthful. Per serving it is not dramatically higher in caffeine than a comparable espresso, since the cup is small. If you are substituting into a recipe, worry about flavour intensity rather than caffeine arithmetic.

What is the best substitute for Turkish coffee in Turkish coffee cake or ice cream?

Instant espresso powder at the same volume, plus a pinch of finely ground cardamom. The reason those recipes specify Turkish coffee is that its powder-fine grounds dissolve into the batter or custard without leaving grit, and instant espresso powder does that job even better while keeping the roast flavour. Do not substitute coarse ground coffee, which will make the dessert unpleasantly sandy.

Related substitutes

More beverages substitutes

Turkish Coffee substitute

Other turkish coffee substitutes

2Espresso-grind coffee, reground until powdery

3Instant coffee granules

4Strong brewed espresso or very strong filter coffee

5Turkish coffee plus cardamom, or the reverse

6The honest case: nothing substitutes for the grind