In Ethiopian culture, coffee is not only a type of beverage but also a symbol of friendship.
To Ethiopians, Africa, savouring coffee is not only a daily activity but is respectfully considered as a traditional ritual, becoming a part of civilisation and is spreaded from generation to generation.
A lot of people assume that the first use of the the coffee bean is discovered from Ethiopia, approximately 800 B.C. Nowadays, there are about 12 million people in Ethiopia growing coffee tree throughout the country, making this place a great nation in producing coffee industry of the world.
According to the tradition from thousand years ago, the Ethiopians consider coffee-related rituals a way to tighten the friendship and show respect. When a guest arrive, they may hold coffee parties lasting for hours, in any time of the day.
The guests invited to the parties often bring along a small gift to show gratefulness to the hospitality of the host. A bar of frankincense would be an ideal example.
Despite being an important ritual, normally the host of the ritual would be a young woman . The Ethiopian girl would wear the traditional dress with white colour and studded with beads, reaching the heels, decorated with colourful threads.
She begins the ritual with roasting and husking the coffee beans, filtering and pouring the later coffee, lithesome like an artist herself. Sometimes, the Ethiopians can do 3 coffee making rituals in a day so that the children would know how to make coffee in the most skillful way.
During this ritual, the young apprentices will have to bring the coffee carefully to each of the guest. The guest with highest social status and oldest age gets the first cup of coffee. This is also a time for people to sit back and discuss or share political-social information. Each coffee party like this will last from half an hour to a couple of hours.
The guests invited to drink coffee are not allowed to reject the drink because this action is considered disrespectful. The guests will be served at least 3 sittings, which are called abol, tona and baraka, named after the 3 goats that helped discovered the coffee bean thousands of years ago. In which, the word “baraka’ means “blessed’, a blessing ritual, wishing luck for the guests.
During the process of savoring coffee, the host usually burn a kind of frankincense to exorcise the ghosts and bad spirits. The guests are also offered traditional snacks such as pop corn, chestnuts and cereal…
The coffee beans are husked manually by using a bowl called mukecha and a stick called zenezena. The husked beans are later moved to a jebena, a terracotta kettle which is put on the stove to cook.
The host usually pour coffee in filling flows, even out of the cup, this is also a part of the ritual. The cups are put onto a tray, on a carpet filled with scented grass, representing the prosperity, wealth and warm affection.
