>>Back home I drank my Turkish with just a bit of sugar, but eventually gave up on sugar completely. I tried to explain to various coffee-cooks employed by my users how small should that bit of sugar be, and invariably ended up with something too sweet for my taste. And they were perfectly capable of understanding "no sugar". ...
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>I'm the same. I don't take sugar. But occassionally, say if I've a bitter taste in the mouth, I MAY want a little sweetening. I just can't get ANYONE to understand "literally half a teaspoonful". Sometimes I have to supervise. :-)

Sometimes the traditional measure "na vr' noža" (on a knife tip) may work, everyone understands how much would that be, but coffee kitchen(ette)s usually have no knives, and these people tend to be take things literally...