Across the Western World, modern coffee shops offer “Coffee served in Luscious Grass Fed Butter, and Sea Salt from the Baltics”, descriptions that sound well informed and sophisticated. In reality this is what every “Gurage” house drinks every day, able to pour “with, or without butter” from the “Jebena”.
Salt in Ethiopia originates from the salt lakes of Afar, 100 meters below sea level full of antioxidant properties, and our Cows from Fogera, are amazingly strong and can resist drought. More sturdy and real, than luscious grass fields.
In Ethiopia, all the above is innate, coffee is drunk in so many varied methods and for thousands of years before anyone else even smelled the drink. In Oromia, celebrating big events, Bunakela is served, coffee beans in dried pods, cooked in butter, tasting like chocolate. In Harar, there is Hasher Kahwa, coffee mixed with the coffee husks, and roasted with Spices. Hoja is a coffee brewed with the dried and roasted coffee leaves, mixed with spices and milk.
The Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony is world famous by now, people sitting in a circle, presided over by a beautiful lady covered in the smell of roasted beans and incense, evoking togetherness and spirituality.
Ethiopian coffee goes beyond the drink, it is mystic and powerful and it should be recognized not only for its quality but it’s rich cultural contribution, including coffee served with the salt from Afar, where Lucy was found.