Delicious Moroccan Spiced Coffee Recipe | Make in 10 minutes

With this recipe, you’ll learn how to make Moroccan Spiced Coffee in about ten minutes, maybe nine. Spiced coffee in Moroccan style is a lovely mixture of coffee and warm and fragrant spices like cardamom, cinnamon, and ginger, that make the coffee lovers’ day start a hint more luxurious. 

To be honest I wasn’t going to share a Moroccan spiced coffee recipe with you at the all. Why? Well, I heard some time ago somewhere about Moroccan Coffee, and I was intrigued. I love Turkish-style cardamom-spiced coffee so why not Moroccan style then? But why haven’t I heard about it already before? I asked my Moroccan husband about it. He fringed his nose and said, “There’s no such thing as Moroccan coffee.“

I can say I was disappointed. But after a while, I decided to dig in deeper. 

Does Moroccan Spiced Coffee exist?

The truth is that there is a café marocain, a Moroccan coffee that is also called café beldi (beldi means land or country in Moroccan Arabic). This coffee is a spiced coffee that people drink in Morocco as well as among the Moroccan Berbers in the mountains. It has several different forms and recipes and the spices vary. But there are a few things in common: there is almost always used cinnamon, cardamom, anise, nutmeg, and cloves at least. Berbers mix in as well as some thyme and rose blossom water or even rose buds!

Tough Moroccan Mint tea is the most common in both street cafes and at home in Morocco, the Moroccans are truly coffee drinkers as well. Morocco has a strong café culture and at home, the coffee is mainly done on the stovetop with an Italian Coffee Maker or with an Arabic Coffee pot the Turkish style.

| Related: How to make Moroccan Mint Tea: recipe, serving and culture

As a cardamom lover, I have used quite a bit of cardamom and only gently the cinnamon. Also, in the recipe I have used fennel seeds instead of anise seeds or star anise to get a smoother balance with the spices, but make your adjustments to create this Moroccan Spiced Coffee to your liking! And as always I love to give you a recipe that you can make ahead like meal prep style and use when needed. So this recipe makes a small jar of ground coffee mixture ready for your pantry to use at any time.

Why you’ll love this recipe

• It’s easy – I mean it.
• It’s simple to adjust to your liking.
• You can use ready-ground coffee or coffee beans that you grind yourself.
• You can use the recipe for the regular coffee that you are using daily 
• You can use the recipe with different coffee brewing methods like French press, Turkish style coffee pot, automatic drip pot, Italian coffee maker, or Chemex.

Ingredients you need for this recipe

The coffee with Moroccan style yearns for a mixture of warm spices. Use always the freshest ingredients and freshly ground coffee if possible. I use ready-ground coffee because we do not have a coffee grinder, so this recipe is completely fine with ready-ground coffee too. If you like cooking from scratch you most likely have all of these spices in your pantry already:

• Ground coffee, choose dark roast if possible. I love to use coffee that is ground super fine and make it in a Turkish coffee pot. 
• Cardamom, you can use both ground and pods
• Cinnamon, use Ceylon cinnamon which is better in quality, avoid Cassia cinnamon, which contains loads of possible harmful coumarin
• Roasted sesame seeds. You can easily roast the sesame seeds on the skillet on a stovetop. Just keep an eye on them, for they burn so easily!
• Fennel seeds, you can use both ground or whole ones. Can be substituted with anise seeds.
• Ginger, ground.
• Nutmeg, you can use ground or grate from a whole nutmeg.
• Cloves, ground, or whole
• Black pepper (optional), use ground or whole ones for a bit of a punchier result.

Check the recipe card for exact measurements.

Other spices you can try

You can add in your spice mix some star anise, galangal root, gum Arabic or thyme.

Tools you may need

• Immersion blender, to grind the spices. You can use a coffee grinder or a mortar instead.
• Glass jar, or deep bowl to mix the ingredients
• Measuring spoons
• Italian Coffee Maker, you can use as well the Turkish coffee pot, French Press, Automatic Drip Pot, or any other coffee brewing method you are comfortable with.

How to make Moroccan Spiced Coffee

Step one – Prepare the spiced coffee mixture

If you are using coffee beans, start with grinding the coffee beans.

Using ground spices – Grind the sesame seeds. Measure all ingredients in the glass jar and simply mix them all well together.

Using whole spices – Grind the spices into the deep glass jar and grind them with the immersion blender. I you use whole beans you can add the spices as well directly to the coffee grinder before blending.

Step two – Make the spiced coffee

Brew the coffee in your favorite way. Here are a few examples:

Using an Arabic coffee pot

Pour about 200ml of water into the Arabic coffee pot. Measure in 2 tablespoons of Moroccan Spiced Coffee grounds and mix them well. Place the pot on a stovetop and turn the stove on. Let the pot heat up on a medium heat until almost boiling. Lift the pot up from the stove for a few seconds to let the coffee come down, and place the pot back on the stovetop. Let the coffee rise back up. Repeat a few times the brew the coffee nicely.

Take the pot off the heat and let the coffee grounds sink to the bottom for about 3 minutes.

Using an Italian coffee maker

Pour the water into the Italian coffee maker, and place the coffee strainer in. Measure the coffee grounds to the coffee strainer and close the Italian coffee maker. Place the Italian coffee maker on a stovetop and turn the heat on. Let the coffee brew on a medium heat until all water has come up.

Using French press

Boil the water with an electric kettle or on the stovetop. Leave it be for 1 minute to decrease the temperature from 100°C to about 90°C so as not to burn the coffee. Measure 3-4 tablespoons to the bottom of the French Press and pour about 300-400 ml hot water on the top. 

Brew coffee for 3-5 minutes. Then, place the plunger of the French press and press it gently down.
Serving the Moroccan Spiced Coffee

Pour the Moroccan Spiced Coffee into the small coffee cups or glasses. Season with sugar if you prefer sweeter coffee. Serve with Moroccan sweets or mix and match with different cultures and try some Finnish almond cake!

Storage

Store the ground Moroccan Spiced Coffee mixture in a jar with an airtight lid. If you are not using the coffee regularly, avoid using a transparent jar and preferably store it in the fridge to increase the shelf life.

How to tweak this recipe

• For a milder result skip the black pepper and decrease the a bit the other spices.
• If you want more exotic splash some drops of orange blossom water or rose blossom water on the top of the ready-brewed cup of coffee.
• For a sweeter coffee add a bit of brown sugar.
• Do an iced version and brew your own iced coffee.

How to adjust the strength of your coffee

When making spiced coffee I have been using the coffee and water ratio of one tablespoon coffee and about 100ml water. If you prefer your coffee less strong drop down the coffee a bit or increase the amount of water.

Something else Moroccan…