Ethiopians love coffee. The first coffee plants were grown in this country and they continue to drink it every day. But this is no Starbucks.
The people here enjoy an hours-long coffee ceremony that includes roasting the green beans outside on an open pan with burning frankincense nearby to enhance the aroma. It’s a sensory experience as the smoke from each wafts through the air… in fact, what I noticed first about Bahir Dar was the pleasant smell of something roasting – I just didn’t know what it was.
We participated in a coffee ceremony Sunday afternoon at the home of Dr. Zewdu Emiru, after a delicious home-made traditional Ethiopian lunch. His sister-in-law prepared the coffee, seated at a small table amid papyrus plant tops spread on the ground like fresh pine needles.
Once fully roasted, the beans are pounded into a powder. Water, meanwhile, is boiled in a small clay pot known as a jebena and the coffee is brewed in it. Once ready, the coffee is poured into delicate ceramic cups. A small spoonful of raw sugar is added.
There are three pourings as we sit and enjoy: the first called abol, the second hulategna and a third, which represents a blessing, called bereka. Roasted barley and popcorn are often served with the coffee. Between each cup we talked and played with Zewdu’s children and their friends in the shade of the home’s mango tree.
The ceremony was so relaxing, I asked Zewdu if they do this every Sunday. He replied Ethiopians do this every day after lunch -- and only after lunch. Every afternoon? I thought, who has time? But then, this is Africa, and certain things are more important than staying busy as we tend to do back home. We are since learning that the coffee ceremony, even if one can’t stay for all three servings, is a normal part of daily hospitality and business meetings.
Americans drink coffee to wake up and be more productive. My classmate Kia Foster and I talked of how so many people purchase coffee through a drive-way and drink absent-mindedly while planning their day at work. Our professor Vachel Miller said many cultures find the placement of coffee in a plastic or Styrofoam cup sacrilege. What if we all stopped and enjoyed the whole coffee process from start to finish and blessed our friends and family as we finished?
The people here enjoy an hours-long coffee ceremony that includes roasting the green beans outside on an open pan with burning frankincense nearby to enhance the aroma. It’s a sensory experience as the smoke from each wafts through the air… in fact, what I noticed first about Bahir Dar was the pleasant smell of something roasting – I just didn’t know what it was.
We participated in a coffee ceremony Sunday afternoon at the home of Dr. Zewdu Emiru, after a delicious home-made traditional Ethiopian lunch. His sister-in-law prepared the coffee, seated at a small table amid papyrus plant tops spread on the ground like fresh pine needles.
Once fully roasted, the beans are pounded into a powder. Water, meanwhile, is boiled in a small clay pot known as a jebena and the coffee is brewed in it. Once ready, the coffee is poured into delicate ceramic cups. A small spoonful of raw sugar is added.
There are three pourings as we sit and enjoy: the first called abol, the second hulategna and a third, which represents a blessing, called bereka. Roasted barley and popcorn are often served with the coffee. Between each cup we talked and played with Zewdu’s children and their friends in the shade of the home’s mango tree.
The ceremony was so relaxing, I asked Zewdu if they do this every Sunday. He replied Ethiopians do this every day after lunch -- and only after lunch. Every afternoon? I thought, who has time? But then, this is Africa, and certain things are more important than staying busy as we tend to do back home. We are since learning that the coffee ceremony, even if one can’t stay for all three servings, is a normal part of daily hospitality and business meetings.
Americans drink coffee to wake up and be more productive. My classmate Kia Foster and I talked of how so many people purchase coffee through a drive-way and drink absent-mindedly while planning their day at work. Our professor Vachel Miller said many cultures find the placement of coffee in a plastic or Styrofoam cup sacrilege. What if we all stopped and enjoyed the whole coffee process from start to finish and blessed our friends and family as we finished?