Letay Fiseha, 36, and her nine friends here in Arat kilo area of Addis Ababa are engaged in traditional coffee-making business. She boldly asserts The Ethiopian Herald that making coffee traditionally gives a much better taste compared with that of the coffee made through a modern machine.
According to Letay, the special delicacy of coffee starts from selecting coffee variety, clean washing, roasting skill and grinding. Therefore, any ordinary individual is not likely to be able to make tasteful coffee. This rather entails that coffee making needs special expertise.
Coffee making is a long ingrained tradition in Ethiopia. As the country is homeland of Coffee plant especially Arabica type, its people and coffee can be said the two sides of a coin that are never separable. In this regard, making coffee at home traditionally has many purposes like welcoming guests and family enjoyment. The ceremony of making coffee also differs depending on the purposes.
Traditional coffee making involves traditional tools like raw coffee, pan, pot (Jebena), stick, mortar, oven, and the like. Pan and oven used for roasting the raw coffee help with a stick and the stick for reducing from burned, mortar on the other hand used for crashing the roasted coffee, and pot for boiling the crashed coffee with mixing the boiling water. The pot is staying some minutes on the fire oven after taking the crashed coffee, and then start to fetch the small cup, called Sini or finjal that orders on the table.
Making coffee for serving guest and family enjoyment involves somehow similar ceremony compared with that of commercial purpose. On the other hand, making coffee traditionally for selling purpose differs from that of family enjoyment.
Currently, many women and men across the nation are engaging in making coffee traditionally, as a means of earning income and job alternatives. The business requires little initial capital to start the coffee preparation. However, most of the time preparing coffee is the responsibility of Ethiopian women.
Before opening this business, Letay graduated with a diploma in Information Technology, but she wasted some time searching for employment in her field of study. With the advise of her nearby local administration, she organized her friends and opened small enterprise.
Following this, she directly agreed with the idea and decides to make coffee traditionally for selling. She further added that, out of the ten members making coffee traditionally in their enterprise, seven of them are women and two men. Most of the women have children but do not have any means of additional income. Hence, coffee making is helping them manage their family including sending their children to school.
According to her, they buy a kilo of raw coffee for Birr 80 and sell 475 Birr after making traditionally in each day. However, the amount increases during the day of Saturday and Sunday. In this regard, the enterprise sells 1,425 Birr each Saturday or Sunday from three kilos of raw coffee in each the two days. On the other hand, accepting any suggestion or recommendation is the motto of their small enterprise, which the means of number of customers were, drinks their coffee. However, following the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the number of customers is decreasing gradually causing fear on the sustainability of their business incase its stays longer.
Letay added that, she has a plan to open her own enterprise after some years later. Efrem Shefaw, an Officer at Addis Ababa Education Bureau, he starts to drink the traditionally made coffee for more than ten years while living with his family.
‘’The taste of coffee, even made through the traditional method differs depending on the preparation. This shows that making coffee traditionally needs special skills” according to Efrem.
As to him, ‘’if the coffee is delicious, I drink two up to three cups which is equivalent to 15 Birr. But if it is not, I would rather not drink coffee at all and would not return to that place again’’
In his understanding, the traditional coffee ceremony increases social interaction; raises the value of the culture, helps solve any problem with friends, families and the like by creating a suitable environment for discussion. Unlike the fear of Letay that COVID-19 would negatively affect their business, he advises that, their businesses would survive the threat of the pandemic if they keep their places and tools to the safety rules against the pandemic.
The Ethiopian herald June 13,2020
BY MESERET BEHAILU
