Turkish Coffee Tasting: Coffee, Stories & Social Life

Tickets for this event are sold by the Yunus Emre Institute. Click here to book your ticket (£7)

A Cup of Coffee, A World of Stories

Discover the story of Turkish coffee, from the coffeehouses of the Ottoman world to a culture of conversation, storytelling and gathering that travelled far beyond.

For centuries, coffee has brought people together. As coffeehouses flourished from the sixteenth century in cities such as Istanbul, Cairo and Aleppo, they became lively places of conversation, news, poetry and performance, where meddahs (professional storytellers) entertained audiences with tales drawn from everyday life.

During this relaxed one-hour tasting, these histories unfold over the thing that brought people together in the first place: a cup of coffee.

What to expect:
• Freshly prepared Turkish coffee and traditional treats
• The story of coffee's arrival and rise in the Ottoman world
• Coffeehouses as spaces of conversation, storytelling and social life
• An introduction to traditional preparation and serving customs
• The chance to try preparing your own Turkish coffee

In 2013, Turkish coffee culture and tradition was added to UNESCO's list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. As a Turkish proverb puts it: "A cup of coffee is remembered for forty years."

Date: Saturday 17th October 2026
Time: 6:00pm to 7:00pm
Ticket: £7 per person, booked through the Yunus Emre Institute website
Venue: Yunus Emre Institute, 10 Maple Street, London W1T 5HA (nearest stations: Warren Street and Goodge Street)

This event is part of the Muslim LitFest. Find our full programme of events here: buytickets.at/muslimlitfestlondon26

THIS EVENT IS SPONSORED BY THE YUNUS EMRE INSTITUTE