A study case on coffee (Coffea arabica): Limu Coffe - IRD

phenomenon linking friends and neighbours, then is deeply rooted in Ethiopian culture and
beliefs.
Women are responsible for the ceremony, prepare all items and lay them out in front
of their guests. A daughter or another female member of the family (even the youngest son)
often helps them mainly brewing the coffee while the owner of the house and her guests enjoy
the ceremony and conversation (Mdahoma, 2007). Items needed are a small charcoal burner
(yekasal mandeja 55
), charcoal, a clay coffee pot and its stand (jebena), mortar and pestle, a
ladle with a long handle, an incense burner (machesha) and incense, small coffee trays and
cups without handles, sugar, milk and obviously green coffee beans. In the meanwhile snacks
are served with the coffee as roasted barley (qollo), pop-corn, peanuts or bread (dabo).
The coffee ceremony corresponds to the called Amhara way of consumption: a triple
decoction of the coffee bean. Beans are never roasted previously; the woman leading the
ceremony put the required beans quantity after washing it on a ladle (large and flat in Jima
and surroundings, hollow and smallest in Tigray) over the charcoal burner. While roasting,
coffee emits its aroma as incense does. The roasted coffee beans are shaken turning a dark
brown, and passed around to individuals driving coffee emanations with a gentle wave of the
hand to smell its aroma. Then roasted beans are crushed within a mortar and coffee powder
boiled into the jebena (clay coffee pot). Coffee powder is thrown in the jebena where water is
boiling, and after few minutes the jebena is removed from the charcoal and put on a special
round stand to let the coffee grounds settle to the bottom. Coffee is finally poured into small
coffee cups without handles, which are laid on a big tray containing up to 50 cups. This first
preparation is served to the guests in priority. Water is after added on the remaining ground
coffee inside the jebena for a second and weaker preparation, and then for a third preparation.
Sugar is added on the cups and sometimes but in a lesser way salt or butter. Spices are used
and added as Ethiopian rue (tenadam), ginger (zengebel), cloves (garamfud) or false
cardamum (kororima). The first one, tenadam, is the most common in Jima and Limu places.
While the ceremony takes place, people engage in conversation eating different snacks (qurs)
as qollo (roasted barley) and pop-corn, even injera. The environment is made of a grass bed
spread in the floor and on the cup tray, people setting on three-legged wooden stools
55 Words are written in phonetic Amharic.
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