Caffeine

Three things I’ve learned about Ethiopian coffee in my first day in-country:

1. Ethiopia is the home of coffee, and they take it seriously. The coffee beans are roasted over fire moments before being ground–it is the freshest coffee you will ever drink.

2. It is soul-searingly delicious. My first drink this morning was very lightly spiced with cardamom, cinnamon and cloves.

3. If you drink 5 cups on your first morning in Ethiopia, you will get very, very sick.

Just getting a cup of coffee in Ethiopia is a complicated affair. There’s an entire ceremony including charcoal, incense, the roasting of fresh beans in a special container over a special firepot which the coffee-girl fans furiously with a small fan, then the smelling of the roasting beans (she holds the smoking beans under your nose), then the grinding and steeping in a small clay pot, usually with the addition of some mild spices.

The entire affair is conducted on a mat of fresh green straw, even if it takes place, as here, in the airport waiting room. The end result is that every public place is full of smoke that smells of coffee beans.

The little coffee stations are EVERYWHERE, you pass a hundred of them a day, even on the sides of remote rural roads.

I think I’m going to like this country.