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Maintaining the Beko Turkish Coffee Maker.
The Beko is the Mr. Turkish Coffee machine, doing for Turkish, what Mr. Coffee did for the American cup: You add fine-ground coffee, water, sugar and optional spice choice to the pot, press a button and less than four minutes later you have Turkish coffee.
But I’m seeing a lot of complaints on Amazon that the Beko Turkish Coffee Maker stopped working after two months. I’ve had mine for four years and it still functions fine, making a morning pot every day. I also had the first version of the Beko that I passed onto my son and it functioned fine as well.
I still love waking up the Beko playing the Muddy Waters Mannish Boy blues riff followed by a steady white light letting me know my Turkish is done. But like most, I’ve gotten the disappointing beep, flashing pink light and unfinished coffee. If you read nothing else in this article, here’s the important thing: The most common reason for the cooking error is overfilling the pot with water. Use 7 ounces (or 210ml) of water at the most. One of the things that makes the Beko unique is the shaking mechanism that helps generate the froth on top. If there’s too much liquid in the in the pot, the shaking seems to trigger and “too full” indication and the Beko shuts off. Beyond this there can be issues with improper maintenance.
How to maintain the Beko.
A little preventive maintenance will save you a lot of time troubleshooting later. The cleaning process is easy.
- Wipe the cavity daily. Remove the pot and wipe the interior of the cavity with a wet paper towel. Don’t just wipe the walls of the unit. Wipe the metal plate the pot sits on: Poor contact between the pot bottom and the plate can disrupt the cooking process. Also wipe the underside of the roof: The Cooking-Level Detection Sensor up there can become blocked by grounds and throw off the brewing. You’ll likely only find a trace amount of grounds when you wipe the Beko down, but these can build up if you don’t take care of them daily. If the plate gets stained, clean it with a wet toothbrush and wipe dry. Don’t use any type of cleaner as it can damage the coatings.
- Rinse and wipe the pot. Washing with harsh cleaners and scrubbing are no-nos, since they can strip off the coatings that help maintain correct temperatures. Just rinse the pot well with fresh water and wipe with a clean dishcloth. Make sure you wipe the underside of the pot as well and dry the pot thoroughly with a dry dishtowel. Tap water can be full of additives that build up if you don’t dry. If the bottom gets stained, clean it with a wet toothbrush.
- Clean monthly with vinegar. Once a month, put a normal amount of water in the pot, add a tablespoon of white vinegar and run it through the normal brewing process. Rinse the pot thoroughly before the next use. I usually run the Beko through a full brewing with only clean water to make sure all tartness from the vinegar is gone.
- Do this all from the first day. If you wait until your Beko malfunctions, it’s harder to get things back on track and you’ll be one of those complaining on Amazon.
A few more tips for a great cup of Turkish from your Beko.
Those who make Turkish coffee seem to have a thousand time-tested secrets for making the best cup. Here are a few of mine specifically for the Beko:
Use a Turkish grind. The Beko was not designed for a standard American grind, which won’t give you the full flavor and can gum up the Beko. The Bekos designed for American outlets come with with a sample of Mehmet Effendi a superfine grind of medium-roasted coffee. This is considered the world standard canned Turkish coffee. But if you must be a connoisseur about it, you’ll need a hand grinder like the Zassenhaus Havanna (sic) and a whole-bean, medium-roast Arabica coffee. Cranking a few hundred times is a pretty good workout. Use fine ground spices and sugar afterwards. In different parts of the world, they add different spices to their Turkish coffee, like cardamom, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and vanilla. But if you put sugar, sweetener and spices in the pot when cooking, they can throw off the temperature settings in the pot and trigger the pink light. These should all be added and stirred in after the brewing process is over. Use spring water or filtered water. They brings out the flavor. While spring water has minerals, they don’t cause deposits if you follow the maintenance above. Use a wooden or plastic spoon to stir. You’ll get a more flavorful cup if you stir your coffee before cooking. This also creates a better froth and helps to settle the grounds. A soft plastic or wood spoon will protect the coatings on the floor of the pot.
The Beko really is an amazing device. Consider that the manual process of making Turkish Coffee takes half-an-hour and Beko’s advanced cooking technology delivers you a good, frothy cup in a few minutes from a device with a smaller footprint than a standard Keurig. Be good to it and it’ll give you years of service.
Read more articles on Turkish Coffee
I don’t get paid by Beko. Nor do I use Amazon Affiliate links to make commission. I depend on readers like you to buy me a coffee below in order to keep the articles coming.
