Cafés in Jordan Amman

Qahwa sada and the Bedouin coffee ritual

Qahwa sada (قهوة سادة), black and flavored with cardamom, is Jordan's welcome coffee, offered as a sign of respect.⁴ Among Bedouin and rural families the bitter form, qahwa murra, is kept for special occasions: coarsely ground beans and whole cardamom are brewed for up to several hours, never sweetened, and large batches go into a long-spouted pot called a bakraj.⁴

At a Bedouin camp in the Dana reserve, the host roasts the beans over a fire of white broom or acacia wood, pounds them with a pestle and boils them with green cardamom in a long-beaked brass pot.⁵ Only men make the coffee there, and the host tastes the first cup himself to show it is good before pouring small, very hot cups guest by guest.⁵

The mihbash and the rules of the cup

The mortar is the mihbash (مهباش), also called mihbaj: a wooden mortar for grinding coffee, traditionally cut from terebinth wood near the root, its hardest part, hollowed about 30 cm deep and often rimmed with brass or silver.⁶ Struck with skill it becomes a musical instrument, and its rhythm once told neighbors that guests were welcome.⁶⁴

UNESCO's file sets out the etiquette: older people and guests are served first, the coffee is poured with the right hand, and a guest shakes the cup to signal they are done.³ Hand the cup back without shaking it and it is refilled; the ritual stops at three cups.⁵ In Jordan the coffee is a fixture of government offices and homes as well as weddings and tribal gatherings.³

Sada, wasat, hilwe: everyday coffee and its price

Outside the ceremony, Levantine coffee is close to Turkish coffee but spiced with cardamom, and it is brewed in a long-handled pot called a rakwa.⁴ It is ordered by sweetness: sada (unsweetened), wasat (medium) or hilwe (sweet).⁴

Cardamom is part of the bill. In April 2025 distributors raised a kilo of coffee from JD 12.60 to JD 14.80 including sales tax, and a 250 g pack from JD 3.15 to JD 3.70, Roya News reported, after cardamom rose 58% in a year.⁸

Amman spread fast and unevenly into a car-dependent city with few walkable places to gather, and early mornings bring lines of cars at roadside coffee kiosks.⁷

Amman, from the kiosk to the roaster

Amman became the capital in 1921 and now has more than four million people.⁹ Its specialty trend gained momentum around 2015, and cafés with smoke-free sections and mixed seating draw young women and men alike.⁷ Dimitri's Coffee Roasters was founded in 2014 by three brothers, roasting on a machine one of them designed and local engineers built.⁹

Jabal al-Weibdeh dates from the 1920s, when residents began moving up from downtown, and has been home to writers, poets and politicians.⁹ Paris Square, with a copy of a Wallace fountain, is its center, and the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts and the Jordanian Writers Society are there.¹⁰ On Jabal Amman, Rainbow Street, formerly Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Street, runs east from the First Circle past the al-Mufti House and Teta Alice's House, once King Talal's residence.¹¹