Sanctuary Roasting · Clovis, California
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SURJ

Armenians opened Europe’s first coffeehouses.
This is the coffee they were making.
Surj is our Armenian coffee — specialty coffee ground extra-fine, brewed slow in a jazzve, and roasted weekly in Clovis.
Shop Surj — $21
Four Hundred Years of Coffee

Before Europe had cafés, it had Armenian merchants with a jazzve.

Coffee reached Europe on the trade routes Armenians ran — and in city after city, the record shows an Armenian name on the first coffeehouse door.
1652
London
Pasqua Rosée opens the city’s first coffeehouse.
1672
Paris
Pascal the Armenian pours the first café coffee at the Saint-Germain fair.
1685
Vienna
Johannes Diodato, an Armenian, holds the city’s first license to serve coffee.
1714
Prague
Deodatus the Armenian serves the city its first cup.
The rooms changed the cities. The coffee in the pot was this one.
The Ritual

You don’t brew surj. You tend it.

No machine, no filter, no timer. A jazzve, a low flame, and your full attention for four minutes. That’s the whole method — unchanged for centuries.
STEP 01

The grind

Extra-fine — finer than espresso, like flour. The grounds don’t get filtered out. They become part of the cup.

STEP 02

The jazzve

Cold water, a heaping teaspoon per cup, sugar now if you take it. Stir once to combine — and never again.

STEP 03

The flame

The lowest flame the stove will give. Surj is never boiled. It’s coaxed — slowly, or not at all.

STEP 04

The foam

Watch the edges. When the dark foam rises and domes, pull it from the heat. The foam goes into the cups first.

The Coffee

SURJ

Toasty, with low acidity and full body — bold without ever turning bitter.
Size 12 oz
Roast Dark — roasted for body and sweetness, pulled before the oils break. Never burnt.
Roast level
Light · Medium · Dark
Grind Whole bean, or pulverized extra-fine for the jazzve — your choice
Roasted Weekly, in Clovis, California
Shop Surj — $21
$7.95 flat-rate shipping to Western states · $12.95 to the rest of the U.S. · free shipping on 3 or more bags
The Bag

Surj, ready for your jazzve.

Surj Armenian Coffee — 12 oz bag, dark roast blend, roasted weekly in Clovis
$21 · 12 ozWhole bean, or pulverized for the jazzve — pick your grind at checkout.
Buy Surj
$7.95 flat-rate shipping to Western states · $12.95 to the rest of the U.S. · free shipping on 3 or more bags
How to Make Armenian Coffee

One jazzve. Four minutes. No shortcuts.

Per Cup

  • 1 heaping tsp Surj (6–7 g), ground extra-fine — finer than espresso
  • 3 oz (90 ml) cold water
  • Sugar to taste — it goes in the jazzve before the heat, not after
  • Optional: a pinch of cardamom with the grounds
  1. Add water, coffee, and sugar to the jazzve. Stir once to combine — then never again.
  2. Set it over the lowest flame your stove will hold.
  3. Watch the surface. Dark foam will build at the edges and creep toward the center.
  4. Just as the foam domes — before it boils — pull it off the heat. Boiling kills the foam and turns the cup bitter.
  5. Spoon the foam into the cups first, then pour the coffee gently over it.
  6. Let the grounds settle two to three minutes. Sip slowly — and stop before the last sip. The grounds stay in the cup.
No grinder that goes fine enough? Pick “Pulverized for Jazzve” when you order and we grind it for you.
The Longer Story

Four hundred years in the pot

Coffee moved into Europe in the 1600s along Ottoman trade routes, and Armenian merchants were the ones moving it — buying in the East, selling in the West, fluent in the languages and the customs houses of both. When the beans arrived, so did the rooms to drink them in. The coffeehouse wasn’t just a business. It was where news broke, deals closed, and poets argued until the pot ran dry.

The method never needed improving. A long-handled pot — the jazzve — coffee ground to flour, cold water, low heat, and patience. No filter, no machine. The same cup in Yerevan, Beirut, Paris, and every diaspora kitchen in between.

The jazzve came to the San Joaquin Valley the same way it went everywhere — carried.

Fresno’s Armenian community is one of the oldest in America, here since the 1880s. This coffee has been made in Valley kitchens for over a century — on wood stoves, then gas, now ours. Surj is our version: the family method, with specialty coffee in the pot, roasted weekly a few miles away in Clovis.

Next from Surj

Something cold is coming.

Surj Cold Brew — in a can. Small, strong, and honest. Soon.

Sanctuary Roasting

Specialty coffee, roasted weekly in Clovis, California
12 W Palo Alto Ave, Clovis · sanctuaryroasting.com