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African Coffee Story: the oldest way to drink Coffee Culture in Ethiopia

Published: 2026-07-16 Author: World Gafei

Last Updated: 2026/07/16, Ethiopians still maintain a lot of coffee traditions. They are not used to picking fruit from trees, and more often they collect ripe and fallen fruit under the coffee tree, which damages the quality of the coffee somewhat. They have always used the traditional sun method to treat coffee beans, but rarely use water washing method, which makes the coffee beans absorb more of the aroma of the pulp, so the fruit flavor is better.

Ethiopians still maintain a lot of coffee traditions. They are not used to picking fruit from trees, and more often they collect ripe and fallen fruit under the coffee tree, which damages the quality of the coffee somewhat. They have always used the traditional sun treatment of coffee beans, rather than water washing-which allows coffee beans to absorb more of the aroma of the flesh, so the fruit flavor is heavier. Nowadays, some of these methods have changed with the development of the coffee industry, but the way they drink coffee still follows the ancient way. The procedure is so complicated that it can take hours to drink a cup of coffee. However, this method of brewing coffee, the room is full of fragrance, so that you do not drink it first.

Almost every Ethiopian family drinks home-grown coffee. The coffee is picked, exposed to the sun and slightly fermented. When the coffee fruit dries and hardens, the fruit is crushed by hand and the beans wrapped in parchment are separated. These coffee beans can be stored for a long time at the right temperature and humidity. However, Ethiopians don't let them store for long. They like to drink fresh coffee.

Ethiopians use a special clay pot to make coffee. Before making coffee, the pot is heated with hot coal. When the pottery pot is heated, the hostess first cleans the coffee beans to remove the parchment-like endocarp and silver skin from the surface of the beans. Then, the hostess will add a little rosin to the fire, incense the whole room, then take out an iron pan shaped like a pan, put it on the fire, pour in the washed coffee beans and stir-fry with a shovel. After a few minutes, the coffee beans gradually show a light brown cinnamon color, followed by a crackling sound-usually divided into "one explosion" and "two explosions". Not long after the explosion, the coffee beans turn dark brown. At this time, the coffee beans are poured into a stone mortar, mashed with a pestle and ground into a powder as fine as possible. Grind the coffee powder, pour it into a warm clay pot and add spices such as cardamom and cinnamon, or add a herb called Adam's Health, and bring it to a boil.

Ethiopians drink coffee from small 3-ounce earless cups. After the coffee powder boils for the first time in a pottery pot, the hostess pours the coffee into the cup and adds a spoonful of sugar. The coffee made in this way is very thick, and the coffee grounds are not filtered. Although most of them remain at the bottom of the cup, there is still powder suspended in the coffee. People who are not used to it will inevitably choke their mouths. The coffee in the pottery pot can be boiled two or three times. If the guest is served with coffee, the guest will usually leave after the coffee is boiled for the second time. In addition, Ethiopians like to match coffee with small pancakes with sweet chili peppers.

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