This blog post
is dedicated to my wife M. Padmavathi, co-writer and my partner in crime. Patient and ever accommodating, Padma was quite annoyed that I had not
written about Ethiopian Coffee and its iconic and traditional coffee ceremony even after 68 blog posts and 60,000
words!
She declared “writing
an Ethiopian blog without Coffee and Coffee ceremony is like watching a Rajanikanth
movie (an Indian super star film actor, known for his stylized acting) without punch
dialogues and his trade mark movements and quirks”.
Just to avoid her wrath and
to have peaceful and harmonious relations in the house, I tentatively broached upon
a topic that was frankly as dry and as un appetizing as yesterday’s coffee,
served cold (pun unintended).
But like I
have always observed, once a topic is launched the story types by itself. I just
try to give it the needed direction. To my bemusement, what I thought was a non-starter
has blossomed into a two-part series. The first part of the coffee journey is
in your hands (courtesy the omnipresent smartphone). God willing, the second
part should be done and dusted by tomorrow. So dive in and enjoy this one along
with a cup of what else, hot piping coffee!
An avid
quizzer and a quiz master, one of my favourite quiz question is “where was
coffee discovered?”. Most teams are bemused by this question and answers roll
in; Indonesia, Brazil, Cuba and even China. I give a hint, “The Latin name of
coffee is Coffee Arabica”.
The participating
teams pucker up and brighten. “Aha, aha” they would grin internally “that was a
dead give way man”. They would yell ‘Saudi Arabia”. And later rattle off as
many middle eastern country names as they can remember. Game, set and match,
Quiz master. Common sense is not very common.
Coffee Arabica
or Coffee as it is popularly called is the brew that wakes up billions of people.
It was not discovered in the Arabian Peninsula. It was discovered in the hilly region
of Jimma, Ethiopia.
The momentous
discovery was at a place called Kaffa and from that word Kaffa came the word Coffee.
Then why the word Arabica? For many centuries the potent invigorator was only
known to the Ethiopians. Some-time later the delightful qualities of Coffee
were discovered by the Arab merchants.
Earlier
Ethiopia was much larger and part of it was, Eritrea which later became an
independent country. Along the Eritrean border and across the Red Sea, the
Arabian Peninsula is very close.
Bab-el-Mandeb ("Gate
of Tears" in Arabic) is a strait located
between Yemen and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of
Africa. It provides the gate way to the Gulf of Aden and to the Arabian
Peninsula. Tip to tip the land mass of Africa is only 5 (five) kilometres from
the Southern-most point of Yemen. Mind boggling to think that we could
literally sail away from Africa and land in Yemen a few minutes later!
Ethiopians
always had very close contacts with Yemen and enjoyed very cordial relations
with the Arabs. The Arab merchants made Coffee popular throughout the world and
thus the name Coffee Arabica.
History gives
credit of discovery of Coffee to an unsung, goat herding young boy Kaldi from the Jimma region. It was an unusually hot and humid day and the spirits of Kaldi and his herd were sinking lower and lower by the minute. The herd was morose
and was dispiritedly gnawing at the grass. It was a dead give-away! They were dog
(oops goat) tired and wanted to rest.
To Kaldi's utter
surprise and horror, suddenly all the goats became very energetic and started
jumping up and down. It was a magical, just like the bulb lighting in the mind
of Newton on the discovery of gravity and Archimedes leaping out of the bath and rushing home naked crying out "Eureka, Eureka" (I have found it, I have found it) when the principle of 'displacement of water theory' dawned on him.
At first Kaldi was nonplussed. It was easy to think of super natural intervention and of
ghosts and ghostly possessions. But he was made of sterner stuff. Instead
of running away wailing and bringing his elders to the spot, Kaldi cautiously ventured
out. He was curious to find out the reason for the unusual exuberance of his
herd.
That is when Kaldi made a discovery that would change the way we look at mornings and the way we
wake up. His goats were chewing on wild berries that had fallen from a tree. Oh
the innocence of the youth! The boy took some of the berries and chewed them
himself. At first there was the bitter taste and then the high hit him. Kaldi wanted to jump and frisk about, just like his sheep!
Kaldi carried some of the berries home. The berries were a huge hit and soon the
entire village was chewing on the berries. It was a high that bet all the other
highs. The story of the berries, the high and the boy Kaldi, soon reached the ears of
the Ethiopian clergy. The orthodox Ethiopian clergy was not having anything
like this happen to their way of life.
It is said that
the high priest took possession the offending berries and in a fit of anger
threw them into a raging fire. The coffee beans were not pleased at all. They crackled
and got roasted. They gave out aroma that was simply out of this world. The
clergy were stunned. They left the place in a huff.
The coffee
beans were roasted till they turned as black as charcoal. ‘Good riddance to bad
rubbish” the clergy must have thought. And the matter was almost forgotten. But
there was no denying the coffee beans. Their tryst with destiny was not be
denied. They were to rise, literally from the ashes, like the proverbial
‘Phoenix”. A smart helper took out the blackened coffee beans and ground them
into powder. He mixed the resultant powder in hot water. Thus was born the
first coffee!
This bitter concoction
was poured out in small cups (called cini in Amharic) and served to the high
clergy. They drank it without a murmur and later discovered that their prayers on
that day were more vigorous. They realized that the potent drink made them
concentrate better and their commune with the god was more effective.
Blessed with
the patronage of the high clergy, coffee’s popularity soared and it became a
rage first throughout Ethiopia and later in the Arabian Peninsula. Today Coffee
with its stimulant Caffeine is the early morning drink of choice for billions of
people throughout the world. The jury
is out whether it is Coffee or tea which is the most popular early morning refresher
of the world.
Whatever the
choice is, Coffee has been embraced with open arms throughout the world and it is
the daily fix that is eagerly awaited. Caffeine high is most sought after and having
hot coffee early in the morning is a habit that is very difficult to break. It
is a matter of culture and ingrained belief. It is simply, a part of life itself.
Realizing the obscene
profits which can be generated if coffee drinkers could be induced to switch
from coffee to a cold drink, Pepsi once introduced a soft drink with caffeine, aptly named “Pepsi AM”.
It was vetoed
and given a massive thump down by the disconcerting coffee drinkers. Yes, they want
a caffeine fix but they wanted it to come their way through the warm embrace of
hot, freshly prepared, aromatic smelling and bubbly coffee and not through
cold, unwelcoming and refrigerated cold drink. Pepsi Am sank like a dead stone
and was given an unceremonious burial by a repentant Pepsi.
