Coffee Ceremony

What a wonderful afternoon, enjoying delicious coffee and talking about Ethiopia for over two hours. Sonja, at E'Njoni cafe has been very active in trying to connect the Ethiopian community with the Adoption community. Throughout the adoption process our paths have crossed a few times... attending the Day of an African child event, enjoying delicious food at her amazing restaurant, and most recently attending the Ethiopian Christmas party (which she hosted). Sonja was so excited to hear about our upcoming trip with three other adoptive families, that she wanted the mothers to come in for a formal coffee ceremony to celebrate and talk about our upcoming trip. We felt very honored to be there and enjoyed every minute!

Coffee originated in Ethiopia, in the region of Kaffee. There are several versions of the story but my favorite is about Kaldi, the goat-herder, who stumbled across the beans. In Ethiopia their are a couple of purposes of the Coffee Ceremony. First, this provided time for the women to get together and talk about the current events in their neighborhood as well as their country. Second, the ceremony is provided to welcome visitors into your home. It is not uncommon for an Ethiopian to share their most valued items with guests, even strangers. Sonja mentioned that some people might be saving sugar for an entire year for a special occasion, and if a stranger came to their home they would gladly share their sugar to give their new friend a delicious cup of coffee.

 

First the host takes the green coffee beans and slowly roasts them over the fire (or burner) until they become dark brown, but not burnt!

Once the beans have been roasted they are crushed into grounds (traditionally in a stone mortar).

Then the grounds are placed in a Jebena (a boiling pot) followed by water.

We continued chatting while the coffee was boiling.....

Now, it was time to enjoy the coffee...with or without sugar, ginger or no ginger, or just plain black coffee...anyway we tried it, this coffee was delicious (yes, I tried all three versions)! We also had the traditional "popcorn" as part of the ceremony, which was also tasty!

What an amazing afternoon! Delicious coffee, wonderful chats and amazing people! We are all so very thankful to be on this Journey!

Once you wake up and smell the coffee, it's hard to go back to sleep.
~ Fran Drescher