|
|
|
 |
|
Until the latter part of the 19th century, coffee beans were sold raw. They were roasted at home and then ground using hand-operated coffee mills. All this changed when Mehmet Efendi inherited his father Hasan Efendi's spice and green coffee bean shop.
Mehmet Efendi was born in 1857 in the Fatih region of Istanbul. Following his education at the Süleymaniye Medresesi (the school attached to the Süleymaniye Mosque complex), Mehmet Efendi began to work in his father's shop on Tahmis Sokak. Mehmet Efendi took over the family business in 1871 and began roasting raw coffee beans, grinding them in mortars and selling roasted and ready-ground Turkish Coffee to his customers. Soon, Tahmis Sokak was filled with the rich aroma of freshly roasted coffee. Thanks to Mehmet Efendi, coffee lovers were able to enjoy the convenience of buying ready roasted and ground coffee, and he soon became known as "Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi", or Mehmet Efendi, vendor of roasted and ground coffee.
|
|
