COFFEE
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Coffee, Ethiopia’s gift to the world
The naming of coffee I most of the times reminds people across the globe the old tie Abyssinia and the present day Ethiopia. We can say coffee and Ethiopia are coined together at most instances.
The Kaffa region of Ethiopia is believed to be home to the original spot where coffee was first found and the name coffee is also derived from the name of this region. In Ethiopian contemporary legend, a priest has seen how his goats were getting high after eating beans of coffee plant and he did an experiment taking the beans by taking the beans home and roasting them for chewing it later. Finally the priest was able to read his bible the whole night with active memory and zeal.
The present day coffee Arabica is what has been transported from Ethiopia via red-sea to the Arab world and then further t Europe during the 10th century. In this period people n the highlands of Ethiopia had only a habit of chewing roasted coffee but not drinking.
Today coffee apart being the back bone of the country’ economy, it is also the day to day life of the Ethiopia people. Ethiopian people have a culture of a very fabulous and exaggerated coffee ceremony which would take hours and one has a chance to sip three cups of coffee in the process. It is a way of socializing where neighborhood and family members get together in the morning after breakfast to breath out their stress, get a counsel and depart to their business. The other coffee ceremony period comes in the evening when everyone comes together to talk about their daily experiences. Attending to one of such coffee making ceremony in Ethiopia would be a life time experience and chance of quenching the zeal.
In Ethiopia about 400,000 hectares of land is covered by coffee and Ethiopia is the third largest producer of coffee in Africa.
Though Kaffa is the original spot to produce coffee, there are many regions in Ethiopia producing a different quality and taste of coffee. The Yirga Chefe, Limu, Sidama, Lekemt and Harer are few to mention among the list.
A coffee tour of Ethiopia would take you to a practical physical walk in the coffee farms to witness and also be part of coffee collection, cleaning and transport process and then roasting and powder making techniques. Visitors shall also attend a typical coffee making ceremony, will be learned how to make coffee in the Ethiopian style and finally be awarded with certificates.
There will also be a short coffee drinking walk to the famous coffee shop in Ethiopia called “Tommoca” and interaction with the local people.
Welcome to the coffee land!