The Habesha coffee ceremony is a core cultural custom in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

and

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

. There is a routine of serving

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

daily, mainly for the purpose of getting together with relatives, neighbors, or other visitors. If coffee is politely declined, then

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...

will most likely be served. Loose

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

is spread on the floor where the coffee ceremony is held, often decorated with small yellow flowers. Composite flowers are sometimes used, especially around the celebration of Meskel (an Orthodox holiday celebrated by Eritreans and Ethiopians).

Brewing

The ceremony is typically performed by the woman of the household and is considered an honor. The coffee is brewed by first roasting the green coffee beans over an open flame in a pan. This is followed by the grinding of the beans using Mukecha, a traditional wooden

mortar and pestle A mortar and pestle is a set of two simple tools used to prepare ingredients or substances by compression (physics), crushing and shear force, grinding them into a fine Paste (rheology), paste or powder in the kitchen, laboratory, and pharmacy. ...

. The finely ground beans are then brewed in a jebena - a traditional clay pot, which contains boiling water and will be left on an open flame for a couple of minutes until it is well mixed with the hot water. The delightful aroma of the roasting beans plays a role in the ceremony. Is often shared with guests as a warm gesture of hospitality. After grinding, the coffee is put through a sieve several times. The boiling pot ('' jebena'') is usually made of

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

and has a spherical base, a

neck The neck is the part of the body in many vertebrates that connects the head to the torso. It supports the weight of the head and protects the nerves that transmit sensory and motor information between the brain and the rest of the body. Addition ...

and pouring spout, and a handle where the neck connects with the base. The also has a straw lid. The gathering goes beyond a coffee break. It's an occasion where loved ones gather to chat about everyday matters and connect with one another emotionally and spiritually through shared experiences and well wishes, for good health and success.

Serving

The host pours the coffee for all participants by moving the tilted boiling pot over a tray with small, handleless china cups from a height of one foot without stopping until each cup is full. The grounds are brewed three times: the first round of coffee is called in Tigrinya, the second and the third ('to be blessed'). In

Amharic Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...

the terms are (), the second () and the third (). The coffee ceremony may also include burning of various traditional

incense Incense is an aromatic biotic material that releases fragrant smoke when burnt. The term is used for either the material or the aroma. Incense is used for aesthetic reasons, religious worship, aromatherapy, meditation, and ceremonial reasons. It ...

. People add sugar to their coffee, or in the countryside, sometimes

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

or traditional butter (see ''

niter kibbeh ''Niter kibbeh'', or ''niter qibe'' ( '), also called (in Tigrinya), is a seasoned, clarified butter used in Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine. Its preparation is similar to that of ghee, but ''niter kibbeh'' is simmered with spices such as ...

''). The beverage is accompanied by a small snack such as

popcorn Popcorn (also called popped corn, popcorns, or pop-corn) is a variety of corn kernel which expands and puffs up when heated. The term also refers to the snack food produced by the expansion. It is one of the oldest snacks, with evidence of p ...

peanuts ''Peanuts'' (briefly subtitled ''featuring Good ol' Charlie Brown'') is a print syndication, syndicated daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run ext ...

, or '' himbasha'' (also called ).

References

External links

Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony Video run by ethiopiancoffeeceremony.co
Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony in photos
at Canadian Photographer series on the Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony
What is the Coffee Ceremony
a multimedia primer on the Coffee Ceremony run b
Bunna Cafe
{{Coffee, nocat=1 Culture of Eritrea Culture of Ethiopia Coffee culture

Brewing

Serving

See also

References

External links