The History of the Coffee Zarf

If you’re a java junkie you’re probably already familiar with the concept of coffee zarf. It’s the corrugated cardboard sleeve that goes around your handle-less paper cup to keep your fingers from burning while you’re drinking your skinny double mochachino. In the modern latte era, we’ve come to think of it as a coffee cozy or a coffee clutch or even a Java Jacket.

But this goofy sleeve has a much more evocative name — and one that’s actually quite old. The word zarf means container or envelope in Arabic. When it was first introduced in Turkey around the thirteenth century, coffee was considered a high-class drink, and serving it was a ceremonious process. It was poured into small porcelain cups without handles (called fincan) and placed into holders called zarf, or (literally) containers or envelopes, to protect both the cup and the drinker’s fingers from the hot liquid. The zarf was also ornate, as the more ornate the holder the more the drinker was respected and loved by those who served him or her.

Unlike the simple sleeves of today’s coffee cups, the ancient zarfs were made from metal or other materials such as coconut, ebony and woods, and they were often elaborately decorated with filigree, chasing, and niello, or even set with precious gems. They solved a practical problem, but they were also a status symbol; the more ornate and expensive the zarf, the more respect and love was shown to its owner.