The centuries-old tradition of Mušo’s ‘Tucana Kahva’ today in Baščaršija holds the handicrafts of Hajrudin Burek and his sons. Their shop can be found here, where coffee is roasted every day in a traditional manner. Burek told Fena about the ways in which coffee is prepared, old customs and Sarajevo cafes.
“This is the continuation of centuries-old tradition of Vratnik. The oldest Sarajevo café that was opened by the grandfather of my wife Muharem Bekrić Mušo in 1895 was located there. The café, called Mušina cafe was named after him’’, said Hajrudin.
Citizens of Sarajevo always came to Tucana café. Its interior has changed over time, but the atmosphere has remained the same.
Nobel Prize Winner Ivo Andrić drank coffee here too, and one time he gave his book as a present to the café and its owners, which Hajrudin keeps to this day. Well-known writer Zuko Džumhur, who is now deceased, also drank the coffee from here.
Hajrudin said that those who were not familiar with the customs were not able to drink coffee in public places. Thus, the anecdote remained that grandfather Mušo asked a customer to leave the café because he did not know how to drink the coffee the right way.
“The custom was to eat rahatluk, drink water and then drink the coffee. Since the guest did not know that, he drank the coffee first and then the water. When he wanted to pay, Mušo told him that his coffee has been paid for, that he personally paid for it, and to never return to the café again because he ‘drank water after the coffee’’, said Hajrudin.
Even if the café at first glance does not look like a lucrative business, Hajrudin said that there are plenty of customers. Most of them are regular customers, and of the foreigners most of them are Turks, Croats and Slovenians.
He said that President of Croatia Ivo Josipović visited his shop more than one year ago when he was in Sarajevo on a visit. He explained to the President what kind of coffee it is and who drinks it.
He carefully preserves and proudly shows off a number of newspaper clippings from the entire world that speak of their well-known coffee, which people even take with them to the US.
(Source: klix.ba)
