As much as I enjoy drinking coffee, I am not fussy about how I drink it. I appreciate very sweet Turkish coffee as much as I appreciate bitter espresso, and I cannot for the life of me understand why people hate Nescafe as much as I hate Comic Sans.

Aside from the times when I’m given the oh-crap-you’re-so-uncultured look, my lack of pickiness is very convenient. Caffeine? Throw it my way.

I am particularly happy with any sort of Turkish coffee, the rampant form of caffeine in this part of the Arab world. For those unfamiliar, know this: Turkish coffee is to Arabs as espresso is to Italians. It’s the all-day drink, whether early in the morning or instantaneous at one of the many coffee-to-go shops that sell the concoction in a soda-fountain fashion.

Turkish coffee is very fragrant, without the slightest bitter tinge. It also a personal feat, as you have the choice of combining differently roasted beans as well as other additions like cardamom to get your perfect pot.

The roasting grades do not make much sense. Mainly, the three roasts are “blond coffee”, “medium coffee”, and “burnt coffee”. Then it’s done in fractions; you almost never get “medium coffee”, you get 1/2 blond with 1/2 burnt, or 1/4 blond, 1/4 burnt, with 1/2 medium. It doesn’t make sense, I’m telling you, but that’s just the way it works. That’s why Turkish coffee always tastes different. Creepy, yeah?

In my household, it was never a conscious decision to get whatever mixture of roasts we always get. It’s probably something that was passed on in the family. I never asked.

History of that choice aside, my mother had a brilliant idea last weekend. “Let’s get different kinds of mixed brews and actually decide what kind of coffee we like,” she said.

And so we did. The boys (sans Omar, who doesn’t drink coffee), myself, my mother, and a few friends got together this evening with the most popular brews and ran a little tasting skit to determine our taste in Turkish coffee once and for all.

We bought the coffee from Bin Izheiman, which my family has been dealing with for decades. The different roasts were:

• 2/3 blond coffee and 1/3 medium coffee
• 2/3 medium coffee and 1/3 blond coffee
• 2/3 medium coffee and 1/3 burnt coffee
• Medium coffee

We had each mixture in sweet and bitter, and sampled each pot in tiny Arabic coffee cups. Here are the results of the voting:

As you see, the winner is 2/3 blond and 1/3 medium, and the least liked one was 2/3 medium and 1/3 burnt. Here are my own thoughts about each different roast:

• 2/3 blond coffee and 1/3 medium coffee: This one’s very safe, it tastes super cliche. People are bound to feel very comfortable with it.
• 2/3 medium coffee and 1/3 blond coffee: My least favorite. It tasted very acidic, more like Arabic coffee than Turkish coffee. I love Arabic coffee, but it’s just weird this way.
• 2/3 medium coffee and 1/3 burnt coffee: A little too strong for most people. It’s much more like espresso and much less like what we’re used to. I personally liked it, but I like my coffee strong.
• Medium coffee: Amazingly, the medium roast was my favorite. It is just right; enough character to taste different from the cliche Turkish coffee you get at coffee shops and not strong enough to want you to gulp it.

What’s your favorite roast? :)