Ethiopia Coffee Trade

Awol Abagojam and his son Isaac pick cherries from what is beleived to be the original ancestral coffee tree in the village Choche, in Jimma, (once the capital of the region known as Kaffa) . Legend says that a goat herder named Khalad noticed his goats “dancing” after eating the red cherries and he took the cherries to a local monastery. The monks proclaimed it must be the work of the devil and threw the beans into a fire but soon became excited by the lovely aroma the roasting beans gave off. They then decided it might be nice to try consuming the beans and this is how coffee began. Ethiopia boasts the most ancient and compelling traditions for coffee consumption that the world has ever seen. Coffee permeates the cultural fabric of Ethiopian life and it unites the country. It binds the many different ethnic groups together, Christian or Muslim, rich or poor. An elaborate extension to Ethiopia’s warm sense of hospitality, the coffee ceremony is a daily social ritual to honour the importance of the bean, and strengthen human bonds.