East Africa is responsible for America's favorite morning brew

East Africa is responsible for America's favorite morning brew¹

Transcript²

For most people in the United States, coffee is synonymous with chains like Starbucks, or third wave cafes boasting Panamanian pour overs — not necessarily the continent of Africa.

But the place where coffee originated, and where the most diverse varieties of coffee thrive, is Ethiopia and South Sudan, as recently confirmed by a research team led by coffee genetics expert and president of the International Women's Coffee Alliance Sarada Krishnan.

These countries are important from a scientific perspective, Krishnan explains, because they are a link to coffee's past and hold the genetic³ traits that, under climate change, are the keys to sustaining coffee's future.

But what also should be celebrated⁴, she says, is that the region also gave the world the culture of coffee. "Before coffee spread into Yemen and around the world, drinking coffee was a communal⁵ event celebrated in Ethiopia."

This connection is something Kenfe Bellay, the owner of Washington D.C.'s landmark⁶ coffeehouse Sidamo Coffee and Tea, knows well. For the last 16 years, he has been sharing the ritualized form of consumption — known as the coffee ceremony — with visitors, helping⁷ them understand the deeper meaning coffee holds for his homeland. In the United States, he says, "you grab coffee and you run. But in Ethiopia, they don't want to finish it so fast. They want to have more time to talk each other, to exchange information, and to enjoy their coffee."

In the traditional coffee ceremony, neighbors are called, frankincense is burned, and fresh green coffee beans are passed around for everyone to inspect before they are roasted to a deep brown on a flat, cast-iron griddle. As the coffee is prepared, Bellay explains, people catch up on information about the community and the world around them. "Coffee is not only to drink. The main part is the social [element] where anything—including the gossip—can be discussed."

After the roasted beans cool, they are typically ground with a mukecha and zenezena (mortar and pestle) and boiled in a clay coffee pot with a long, thin neck (resembling ones favored for pour overs) known as a jebena. The boil, he says, concentrates the flavor.

From the jebena, three pours of coffee are poured into small, palm-sized cups. The first offering is dark and strong; the second, cut with water and re-boiled, is slightly weaker; and the third, to which more water is added, resembles more of an infusion⁸. All, Bellay says, give people time to experience the diverse flavors of coffees that vary from place to place.

"The Yirgacheffe is very fruity with the citric finishing, the Harrar is stronger with a mocha finishing, whereas the coffee from Sidamo is spicier⁹, with a medium body," he says."

Flavor is what proved transformative for self-described coffee nerd, MC, and entrepreneur Bartholomew Jones. It started with a coffee from Burundi, he explains, that "tasted like a strawberry flavored latte. I said, 'Hey, I didn't want any flavoring in here. What did you guys do?' And they said, 'No, that's just the coffee. This Burundi coffee has a really heavy strawberry note.'"

That olfactory¹⁰ revelation inspired Jones "to figure out why [it tasted different]—and what other coffees would taste like if they were treated with the care that something Black deserves."

The culmination¹¹ of this curiosity is the North Memphis storefront Cxffeeblack, a venture he cofounded with his wife Renata Henderson as "a social experiment ... to reclaim¹² the Black history of coffee, and reimagine its Black future."

The site includes a roastery, and what Jones describes as an alternative to coffeehouses that can be perceived as marks of sophistication—or gentrification. "There are four horsemen of the gentrification apocalypse," he says, "craft breweries¹³, small ladies walking tinier dogs, a Whole Foods, and a coffee shop." And this is why, he stresses, his joint¹⁴ is a coffee club, not a coffee shop. "You'll see people coming up who have a lot of money, and people coming up who live in the neighborhood who don't have any money, but everybody has access. Everybody is enjoying."

The conviviality¹⁵ Jones felt when participating in the coffee ceremony on his trip to Ethiopia "confirmed everything I knew about how Black coffee was in its origin, and how Black it could be in the future if folks from the diaspora [were to] reclaim it and reengage with it on our own terms."

And that is exactly what Jones aims to do in North Memphis: celebrate the African roots of coffee from crop to cup. "Even though so much of our past has been taken from us, coffee represents a way to connect through that oppression," he says. "Not just as something where you have to leave your culture at the door."

1 brew   

v.酿造，调制

参考例句：

• Let's brew up some more tea.咱们沏些茶吧。
• The policeman dispelled the crowd lest they should brew trouble.警察驱散人群，因恐他们酿祸。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

4 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

5 communal   

adj.公有的，公共的，公社的，公社制的

参考例句：

• There was a communal toilet on the landing for the four flats.在楼梯平台上有一处公共卫生间供4套公寓使用。
• The toilets and other communal facilities were in a shocking state.厕所及其他公共设施的状况极其糟糕。

6 landmark   

n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标

参考例句：

• The Russian Revolution represents a landmark in world history.俄国革命是世界历史上的一个里程碑。
• The tower was once a landmark for ships.这座塔曾是船只的陆标。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 infusion   

n.灌输

参考例句：

• Old families need an infusion of new blood from time to time.古老的家族需要不时地注入新鲜血液。
• Careful observation of the infusion site is necessary.必须仔细观察输液部位。

9 spicier   

adj.用香料调味的( spicy的比较级 )；有香料味的；有刺激性的；（故事、新闻等） 刺激的

参考例句：

• She added some green chili peppers to her cheese dip to make spicier. 她在起司沾酱中加了一些青辣椒让它辛辣一点。 来自互联网

10 olfactory   

adj.嗅觉的

参考例句：

• He is to develop a sensor to substitute for the olfactory abilities of dogs.克罗克将研制一种传感器用以代替狗的嗅觉功能。
• Based on these findings, Keller suspects that each person has an olfactory blind spot.根据这些发现，凯勒推断，每个人都有一个嗅觉盲区。

11 culmination   

n.顶点；最高潮

参考例句：

• The space race reached its culmination in the first moon walk.太空竞争以第一次在月球行走而达到顶峰。
• It may truly be regarded as the culmination of classical Greek geometry.这确实可以看成是古典希腊几何的登峰造级之作。

12 reclaim   

v.要求归还，收回；开垦

参考例句：

• I have tried to reclaim my money without success.我没能把钱取回来。
• You must present this ticket when you reclaim your luggage.当你要取回行李时，必须出示这张票子。

13 breweries   

酿造厂，啤酒厂( brewery的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• In some cases, this is desirable, but most breweries prefer lighter-type beers. 在一些情况下，这是很理想的，但是大多数啤酒厂更倾向于生产酒度较低的啤酒。
• Currently, there are 58 breweries producing Snow Beeracross the country. 目前，全国共有58个雪花啤酒厂。

14 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

15 conviviality   

n.欢宴，高兴，欢乐

参考例句：

• Sumptuous food and patriotic music created an atmosphere of elegant conviviality. 佳肴盛馔和爱国乐曲，使气氛十分优雅而欢乐。 来自辞典例句
• Synonymous with freshness, hygiene and conviviality, the individual cream portions are also economical and practical. 独立包装奶不仅仅是新鲜、卫生、欢乐的代名词，同时也是非常经济实用的。 来自互联网