No one article in a life time can cover the in and out of the Arabic Coffee, As within Arabia there are so many of them, I will concentrate on the Qatari typical one.
The tradition starts when you are sitting in a Majlis (The place of guests sitting) and you get approached with two items.
- The Finyal: as pictured, the special cup for the coffee, so many designes on the outside, usually the size is fit to put it within the tips of the fingers twisting them slightly. You deliver and receive it with the right hand, always on the top of the cup.
- The Dallah: One of the master pieces of Coffee mking, no Majlis is complete without having a collection of it, the most famous is the copper: “Raslan”, always handled with the left hand.
When you visit the majlis it is crucial to know this trick I will describe in this short story.
One of my friends entered the Majlis, it was part of funeral so people were not very chatty, he was approached by “Sabbab El Qahwaa”, he started pouring the coffee for him, it started 1, 2, 3, kept going, he wanted to stop, he told him thank you, enough, the guy kept going, he was filled with coffee, please “Kalas”, kept going. He didn’t know the magic move, you need to do for him to stop. Flicking tge coffee cup right and left in a circular motion in place. If you don’t, he will keep going forever, which was quite funny for my poor friend. Please learn it before you go to a Majlis.