Friday, October 30, 2009

Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony

By Habesha Abesha

The coffee ceremony in Ethiopia is an important part of their social life and cultural life. Whenever you are invited by an Ethiopian to his/her traditional coffee ceremony, it means you have been accepted as a friend and you have also earned their respect. It is an excellent example of their hospitality.

Most people who find themselves as guests in their house would never fail to notice, the coffee ceremony Ethiopians are quick to present to their guests or visitors.

Ethiopians are very adoring of their coffee and their coffee ceremony never fails to be an extra-ordinary event.

The extended Ethiopian coffee ceremony starts with the ceremonial equipments being arranged upon a bed of long scented grasses. After that, the coffee is roasted on a level roaster above a small charcoal furnace, the aromatic smell blending with the heady scent of incense that is also customarily burned during the Ethiopian coffee tradition.

Next, the woman who is in charge of the coffee ceremony carefully washes the handful of coffee beans on the heated furnace, then stirs and shakes the remains away. Once the coffee beans have turned black and shining and the aromatic oil is coaxed out of them, they are ground by a pestle and a long handled mortar.

The ground coffee is slowly stirred into the black clay coffee pot locally known as 'jebena', which is round at the bottom with a straw lid.

Due to the archaic method used by Ethiopians, the ground result can be called anything but even, so the coffee is strained through a fine sieve several times.

As the coffee gets ready to be served, the youngest individual is picked to announce the start of the coffee ritual. At which time, the very person (usually) will stand by prepared to hand over the coffees being poured in the small china cups, by the woman in charge. The first cup is, almost all the time, served to the eldest person in the room, with the youngest being the last.

The lady finally serves the coffee in tiny china cups to her family, friends and neighbours who have waited and watched the procedure for the past half-hour. Gracefully pouring a thin golden stream of coffee into each little cup from a height of one foot without an interruption requires years of practice.

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