That's how Slovenians make coffee

With some useful phrases in Slovenian for you

I've traveled around the world and I've tried a lot of coffee, from Austria, Italy to Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Korea. I love coffee. I've seen the kopi tiam culture in Malaysia, the coffee house culture in Vienna, I've tasted Italian espressos and cappuccinos and American filter coffee in the famous coffee chains around the world. But how about Slovenia? What kind of coffee people usually drink in Slovenia?

Well, as much as we want to be seen as a central European country, our coffee culture has been adopted from the Balkans. While at home we mostly make and drink Turkish coffee (turška kava), in bars and cafés we drink espressos, cappuccinos and coffee with milk, all made by various coffee makers and machines. But so far we don't have big American coffee chains here, thank god for that.

Let me show you how I prepare my coffee at home every morning:

I put water and a spoon of sugar in the džezva (pronounced "jaz-vah").

I wait for the water to get hot, then just before boiling I add 3 spoons of ground coffee and mix.

The coffee starts to rise just before boiling. Have to be careful not to spill it over.

When it boils, I turn off the heater and let it calm down. I mix it a little and then
pour the coffee slowly in the mug. I add milk, personally a lot of milk.

I usually add more sugar (2 spoons afterwards), some don't. This is called kava z mlekom
(coffee with milk). If you don't add any milk, it's called črna kava (black coffee).

And voilà... the Slovenian coffee is ready to drink. Variations of this kind of coffee are drunk in the Middle East, northern Africa, Turkey, Caucasus and the Balkans. Slovenia is probably the most Western European country, that commonly drinks Turkish coffee at home. If I would host you at my home, I would probably make this type of coffee for you.

Here's some vocabulary for you, if you come to Slovenia and order coffee:

turška kava [pron. toorsh-kah kah-vah] - Turkish coffee

kava [pron. kah-vah] - general word for coffee

črna kava [pron. cher-nah kah-vah] - black coffee

bela kava [pron. bella kah-vah] - white coffee

kava z mlekom [pron. kah-vahz-mlay-come] - coffee with milk

kava s smetano [pron. kah-vahs smay-tah-noh] - coffee with whipped cream

kapučino [pron. capoochino] - cappuccino, just written in Slovenian

podaljšana kava [pron. poh-dahl-shah-nah] - extended coffee, more coffee inside

sladkor [pron. slahd-core] - sugar

s sladkorjem [pron. ser slahd-cor-yem] - with sugar

brez sladkorja [pron. brass slahd-cor-ya] - without sugar, no sugar

brezkofeinska kava [pron. brass-co-fe-in-ska] - decaffeinated coffee

z [pron. zer], s [pron. ser] - with, brez [pron. brass] - without

prosim [pron. pro-seem] - please or you're welcome.

hvala [pron. hvah-lah] - thank you.

If you order coffee in Slovenia, these phrases may be useful to you:

1 For one cup of coffee: One _______, please.

Eno ______ (fill in the blank: kavo z mlekom/črno kavo/belo kavo/kavo s smetano/kavo brez sladkorja/brezkofeinsko kavo...), prosim.

2 For two cups of coffee: Two ______, please.

Dve ______ (fil in the blank: kavi z mlekom/črni kavi/beli kavi/kavi s smetano), prosim.

3 When waiter brings you the coffee, he may say: Izvolite. (Here you go)

4 You say: Hvala. (Thank you). If he's polite, he should say: Prosim. (You're welcome)

How do you drink coffe in your country?

[My Slovenia page][All photos by MKL, 2010]