Coffee carving my time in Africa

The best thing that Africa has left me is that I have learned that I can sit down anytime, anywhere and quietly savor the mellow smell of a cup of coffee.

JAVA and Friday Coffee

The most popular coffee shop in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, is the JAVA Cafe. At first, I thought the name was taken from that computer language. Later, when I looked up the dictionary, I realized that JAVA means coffee in American slang. A large cup of coffee of the day costs only 70 shillings, or 7 yuan, while cappuccino is served in a bowl-like cup for 150 shillings. Machiato coffee is my favorite. The taste of coffee can only be understood by people who have drunk African coffee.

The nearest JAVA is on Engang Road. It takes 10 minutes to drive and only half an hour to walk. If you go to JAVA at noon, you must have to wait in line. Sometimes I buy a small packet of freshly ground coffee beans while standing at the bar watching them make coffee, so I can get a free cup of coffee of the day.

The charm of JAVA is not only pure coffee, but also English snacks and service. Waiters walk through the crowd in their T-shirts with a map of Africa and JAVA's LOGO. In Africa, waiters are a happy group of people who greet their guests cheerfully from time to time, and some humorous young men always make the guests laugh. They love their jobs.

Many afternoons are spent in JAVA, reading an English novel, or sitting on a bench chatting with Guoer, sometimes going to a small bead shop next door to chat with the beautiful girl Jane. Jane spent four years in China as an attendant of the Kenyan Embassy in China. She speaks simple Chinese and excellent English. Her job is to help an Indian designer look at the DIY jewelry store. In her spare time, she will pick up beads and make a bracelet herself. Jane is very happy, loves her present job and dreams of owning a small shop of her own.

JAVA has a branch in town and a branch near Friday's market, both of which are doing brisk business. The Friday market is near UN-Habitat, also known as the Marseilles Market, a free market that only opens over the weekend to sell Marseilles tribal goods. Interestingly, I fell in love with the coffee taste of a coffee shop near the market and thought it almost surpassed JAVA and was the best coffee in Nairobi. Unfortunately, I didn't write down the name of the coffee shop, so I kept replacing it with "Friday Coffee".

The dream is watching the sunset in the roaring thorns

There are many beautiful coffee gardens on the outskirts of Nairobi. These gardens have beautiful names, "Karen Coffee Garden", "Rustynail", "Kentmary", "WhistlingThorn", "Windsor Club" and so on. Each garden has a unique view and excellent coffee. Only those who have a discerning eye can appreciate the long and meaningful charm of the country coffee garden.

Karen Garden is the former home of Karen, a Danish woman who is the author of "out of Africa". After leaving Africa, Karen left large tracts of her home and coffee garden to her black housekeeper. After several changes, an American female architect bought Karen's former house and turned it into Karen Coffee Garden in six months.

Today's Karen Garden is a gathering place for whites in Nairobi. There are the best local bands in Nairobi, fashionable parties, and many tourists abandon the upscale hotels in the city and stay in Lodge in the garden. These separate wooden houses are scattered in the depths of the garden. At night, the waiter lit a fire in the fireplace in the room, sprinkled flowers with white sheets and sent seasonal fruit. The fireplace in the corner of the patio in the coffee shop was also burning.

Windsor Club

The open grass is the best place to enjoy coffee. More than any sipping under the eaves, tasting coffee in the sun is a pleasure to the soul. Sometimes people walk around the grass barefoot like children, picking up delicate African items with a napkin with elephant footprints or a small grocery store turning aside. Susan, the waiter, and Aulia, the grocery store clerk, became friends with me. When I didn't go there for some days, they would marvel at how long my hair was and how beautiful my new clothes were.

The landlady of Rust Nail is a rich English woman. her tall figure, curly explosive hair and hearty laughter make her look and sound full of vitality. Enjoying her happy greeting is a happy dessert for us. Rust nail provides all kinds of "rust nail special drink", such as "green nail", "nail sunset" and "nail memory", which often make the fruit that is not good at drinking get drunk and drunk.

Compared with the open and bright Karen, the rust nails are small and delicate, and the cafe is built on high ground, with scattered vegetation, neatly manicured "Jiuzhong Pavilion" flower trees, and a large horse farm behind the fence. Sometimes, a huge tent was suddenly set up in the garden, and cheers erupted from the tent, where a group of men gathered to watch this season's English football match.

One of the Eden we "stole" is Kate Mary, a private club in the mountains near the tea garden that also provides accommodation. The lily of the valley planted at the door covered the roof, and the golden flowers hung down and swayed gently in the wind. Looking down the small hillside, a shallow stream naturally separated the coffee garden from the tea garden outside from the cornfield, and there was a swing in the garden, which became a collection place for many children's laughter.

The roaring thorn coffee garden is a bright pearl scattered on the prairie, looking at the vast prairie and the flat-topped thorn trees scattered on the prairie, and the lucky people have seen giraffes walking slowly in the distance. In a year, the prairie is golden half the time and green half the time. At the end of the prairie is the undulating Engang Mountains, as if five fingers spread out to touch the wonderful scenery of the city center. Watching the sunset on the prairie in the roaring thorns is the dream of Guoer and me.

Meet the oldest coffee etiquette in the world

Ethiopia is the hometown of coffee. When he returned to China in 2004, he first flew to Ethiopia with Guoer and stayed in the capital Addis Ababa for a long time. Addis Ababa means "City of Flowers" in Chinese, and the guidebook says: "this city allows you to enjoy the sunshine of 13 months a year." The breakfast in Yashi is fascinating. I, a lazy man who had never had a habit of eating breakfast, was woken up by the dazzling sun every day and took the fruit to a small cafe opposite the hotel for breakfast. The mark of the Italian colonization of the city is left in this cafe, which has a very European name, freshly squeezed juice, freshly baked croissants and unparalleled coffee. The cafe was full of people all morning. After going there twice, a beautiful young Ethiopian greeted us with a smile like an acquaintance. Enjoying a quiet and long Branch (lunch) here has become half the theme of our life in Asia.

Exquisite small rusty nail cafe

In Asia, I met my best African friend Amsa. Amsa's family, once a strong local people, lost their father, residence and everything in a coup. Nowadays, a large family lives in a rented house in the city, and the eldest brother who takes pictures and works as an artist is the head of the family.

One day, at her kind invitation, we went to her house and met the oldest coffeeceremony--- coffee ceremony in the world.

Because it was the oldest woman in the house, Amsa's aunt presided over the whole coffee ceremony. She specially took out a traditional headscarf and put the necessary utensils on a small blanket. The coffee beans have been baked at home, and my aunt, who doesn't know English, grinds the beans with her hands and communicates with us with a girl-like shy smile. The coffee pot is made of earthen clay and looks like the legendary Aladdin lamp. The Ethiopians believe that only charcoal fire and earthen pottery can make the most fragrant coffee.

The rosin lit on the small incense seat gives off an intoxicated fragrance, the coffee is slowly heated and begins to produce fragrance, and the whole house is filled with fragrance. For the Ethiopian, it all starts with the smell.

The first course of coffee was made, and the coffee was poured into each small cup. The aunt first added a few spoonfuls of sugar to our small cup, and the first cup was given to the guests. Ethiopians drink coffee without milk, just a lot of sugar. Sometimes, they pick rosemary leaves that can be found everywhere by the roadside. After washing, they pick a small piece and put it in the coffee. The fusion of the two substances will also give off a creamy aroma.

Another thing that is essential to coffee etiquette is the popcorn popped over the charcoal fire in a small pot. Drinking black coffee and putting a popcorn in his mouth, the whole Ethiopian time stood still in this coffee.

Three courses of Ethiopian coffee, each with its own name, tastes lighter than the other. Amsa told us that when we go to the neighbor's house, the first thing to say is to ask how many courses we have had for coffee. If it is already the third route, the guests will shake their heads and walk away in frustration. If they are caught up in the first lane, they will sit down cross-legged and have a cup.

The waiter is a happy group.

In Ethiopia, coffee etiquette can be found everywhere, even in the international five-star hotel-Sheraton, there are beautiful Ethiopian women making coffee etiquette in the corner of the lobby, greeting guests from north and south to stay for the best coffee.

The Ethiopian are proud of coffee. They all think that the coffee beans produced in their own country are the best, while the coffee brewed at home is the best coffee.

Coffee is a part of life in Africa, whether in the depths of the most remote East African Rift Valley or in the Maasai nomadic Masai Mara prairie, whether urban or rural, you can always smell coffee and go, stay and savor. Carve those endless African times with a cup of coffee.

China Coffee Trading Network: www.gafei.com