Ethiopian Coffee
Visit Ethiopia
People from all over the world come to Ethiopia for many reasons. Perhaps its to visit the largest open air market in all of Africa. Or to eat some of their delicious food while enjoying a show of traditional dance. They could come to visit the rock churches of the northern country. A place once deemed the new Jerusalem and massive churches were carved from rock-cut architecture of the 13th century. Or perhaps their most famous treasure, Lucy the 3.2 million year old almost complete Australopithecus skeleton.
BUT, there’s also another reason to come. Even though you can enjoy this treat from one of the many countries that import it, coffee is served best inside the country that started it all.
Ethiopia Coffee
Ethiopia accounts as the sixth largest coffee producer in the world and also the largest producer in Africa.
There are two main coffee varieties in Ethiopia:
Yirgacheffe
Harar
Yirgacheffe is the most popular and the most exported bean of the two. Yirgacheffe is wet-processed, as harar is dry-processed. Harar will also be used as more of an espresso bean, as yirgacheffe more for coffee.
As for the people of Ethiopia, they are very proud of their coffee varieties. This map from Trabocca, an Amsterdam based coffee importer, shows just how diverse their coffee can be.
Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony
It’s personal. It’s intimate.
There is an intricate component to the Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony that can be lost on many of us when we think of coffee. That is Time.
For many of us, it can take five minutes to walk into any coffee shop and leave within five minutes of ordering a coffee drink. For some making coffee at home or work, it might be pressing a couple of buttons, and having a cup ready to drink within a couple of minutes.
But the Ethiopian coffee ceremony entices you to appreciate the coffee bean much more.
The entire process takes around two hours to complete. Too long to wait? Believe me. It’s worth it.
The freshly handpicked green coffee beans are first roasted in a pot over an open flame. Frankincense is burned throughout the air to give off an ethereal feeling. Popcorn is popped alongside the roasting coffee beans and conversation spills out as the aroma of the coffee begins to circulate.
When the beans are deemed ready, they are ground into a mortar and placed inside a pot called a jebena. A jebena is usually made of clay and is the traditional way of pouring coffee. Tiny cups are placed about and the coffee is poured into them.
As you are handed a cup, the entire two hour experience immediately become enhanced by the smell and taste of the coffee. It’s rich, dark, fruity flavors explode into your senses. The caffeine certainly picks it up a notch and all that’s left to do is smile.
Enjoying coffee in this way from the people harvest the bean, is a special experience. One that you should try too.
