Coffee Ceremony

Well, after yesterday's deep thoughts I thought I'd post something a little more fun today. My friend Ruth really eloquently wrote about her experience with Ethiopian coffee. I won't be able to match her writing ability, but I thought I'd write a bit about the Ethiopian coffee ceremony.

I have not been a coffee drinker until very recently. People kept telling me "Oh, wait until you are in University, then you'll start"...didn't happen. Then people said, "Oh, wait until you start work, then you'll start"...didn't happen. Then people said, "Oh, wait until you have kids, then you'll start"...didn't happen. What did it? Having the kids start school full-time (not only did I have to make myself presentable, but pack lunches, organize 2 kids and get out the door so early)! Of course, having a weekly coffee get together with good friends at Starbucks sped the addiction along quickly. My problem was that I didn't like coffee...I liked lattes. And lattes are more expensive, and more fattening...especially when it's a Starbucks mocha with whipped cream! I confess that I was very addicted before we left...I had received some gift cards at Christmas, and might have had 4 or 5 the week before we left for Ethiopia. (This was an exception).

Anyway, I'm digressing again. While in Ethiopia, we were privileged to participate in some coffee ceremonies. Basically, a coffee ceremony is done right in the living room of the home. They take some green coffee beans and roast them right there on some coals. Once the beans are roasted, they crush them (done by hand in the villages, by coffee grinder at the guest house), they add the water and bring that to a boil. While all of this is going on they burn incense, and offer you popcorn, and sometimes barley. The coffee, once boiled, is put into a traditional clay coffee pot called a Jebena. We bought one in Ethiopia for $2 and actually managed to bring it back in one piece!

After a few minutes, the coffee is served in tiny little cups. The "buna" or coffee, is very strong, but very good. It is basically like an espresso, but you add a lot of sugar. Well, not everyone may, but I do. :-) Once everyone has finished round one, they add more water to the grinds and have round 2, then round 3. The whole process takes about one hour. Our guide at KVI, Solomon, told us that in the villages they do this up to 3 times a day. Wives will often make it for husbands before they leave for the day, then it's done two more times with the ladies and kids - sounds like our version of a playdate, but we pick up Starbucks or Tim Hortons on the way!

At our guesthouse they performed this coffee ceremony every time someone left to return back home. Fortunately, we were the last to leave so we were able to enjoy this three times (we missed a few while we were traveling in northern Ethiopia).

The problem is, now that I've returned home, coffee just doesn't taste as good. I have had a few lattes and they just taste so milky. And regular coffee tastes so watered down. We have a cool coffee machine at GE so I had some espresso there the other day...when I added a package of raw sugar it tasted as close as I could get.

Thankfully, we purchased some Ethiopian green coffee beans (round one was a disaster - I don't think we roasted them long enough. Sorry D&B and L&E) and roasted coffee beans and we're starting to work on bringing back the taste...although I have a feeling that it will never taste as good as the coffee we had while on vacation.

Anyway, that's enough rambling for now...I need to keep up my addiction of scrolling through the various Ethiopian adoption forums to see if there is any news on the latest regulation.





Green coffee beans, roasted right over coals in the living room.















The finished beans












Everything you need at a coffee ceremony
















The ground coffee, not as dark as you'd think











The finished product. YUM!