I have seen coffee prepared as in Qatar: It was mixed with cardamon, and had a light brown colour. The taste was excellent. I was told that the coffee beans were roasted only very little. Which kind of coffee beans are typically used for this coffee in Qatar, and can one get them in Europe.
2 Answers
Arabic coffee can refer to black coffee, similar to Turkish coffee or the lighter, greenish-brown coffee drunk in Saudi and the UAE. Both are commonly flavoured with cardamon.
There isn't any specific type of coffee bean that needs to be used, as long as it's only been lightly roasted.
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1Qahwa arabiyyah simply means Arabic coffee, and as I mentioned, it can refer to either type. What an Arab from the Levant would call Arabic coffee will likely differ quite a bit from what a Saudi would call Arabic coffee.– NRafApr 30, 2015 at 12:04
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A few other questions related to Turkish/Arabic coffee mention that it's generally made with Arabica beans, so you may want to look specifically for a light-roast Arabica and mix in your own ground cardamom seed at home. Apr 30, 2015 at 14:45
From your description, I suspect you may have had something called coffee cherry tea, called regionally as cascara or qishr (the latter especially in the Middle East; it is sometimes spiced).
This beverage made from the skins and pulp of coffee cherries; that is, coffee cherry tea is made from the parts of the coffee fruit that surround the coffee beans. Conventional coffee is made from the roasted "coffee beans" (seeds of the coffee fruit); coffee cherry tea is made from the fruit that surrounds the beans.
Cascara tastes vaguely of coffee, is somewhat sweet, and (to me) delicious. Coffee cherry skins and pulp (or "husks") are difficult to find outside the coffee belt. As I mentioned as an aside in this SA question, I found cascara for sale from Verve.
See also this question about qishr from Coffee.SE.