[MarkinAZ]

Through an Armenian source, I located an excellent market on the border of Glendale/Burbank that has everything you could ask for. Talk about Ibrik city! There was copper, SS, and everything. I picked up a copper ibrik for $7.99 and walked over to the coffee section. I was just like a little kid in a candy store (well, they had that too...). I ended up choosing the Cafe Najjar Classic blue bag for $2.99 (7oz or 200gr) as I thought this would be a good introduction.

After briefly cleaning my new Ibrik, I filled it half way with some water and grounds and gave it a good boil to break it in. Dumped the mess and rinsed it out.

My Ibrik holds exactly 8oz of water measured up to the lip. I measured 6oz of water, 1T of turbinado sugar, and 2 healthy tsp of Najjar (no stirring) and threw a low-medium gas heat underneath. This took a number of minutes to bring a lite rolling boil from the sides to the center, while gradually thrusting it upwards. As the crema almost reached the top, I withdrew the Ibrik from the heat and let it rest for approximately 30 sec.

During the 2nd boil, I noticed it was simply bubbling from the side and there was no crema forming or upward movement to the top. I simply realized that possibly 1) This was due to low heat and 2) Maybe not enough ground coffee to help form a seal between the water and air. I proceeded forwards and dumped this first batch and started over again and added an extra tsp of ground coffee and raised the heat up to medium.

This appears to have worked and I got the desired results. I performed 4 boils/rests with stirring after the 4th boil/rest, and ended with a 5th boil and some decent crema which was spooned into my 10oz slim cup. After the rest, I slowly poured my newly created elixir and enjoyed sipping it this evening. Now I'm HOOK...

I'll get some photo' up here soon. Looking forward to adjusting the mixture for this size Ibrik, oh, tomorrow maybe?