flipEthiopian-Style Harar Coffee
Ethiopian-Style Harar Coffee
Why this dish? Settled in Harar from 1880, Rimbaud became a merchant and coffee exporter: he weighed, shipped, and tasted every day the bean that the city traded toward Aden.
A very fragrant coffee, made from Harar beans roasted on the spot and infused in a clay coffee pot. A drink of welcome in Ethiopia, it is served in small cups, boiling hot.
Here in Harar, I set down the pen for the scale: coffee, that is my verse now! They roast the beans before you on a plate, the smell fills the courtyard, then they pass it three times through the clay jebena. Drink it without sugar and without ceremony, like a man who is done with the salons of Paris — it's bitter, it's honest, it wakes up those who have dreamed too much.
- •Green Harar coffee beans — a handful (base)
- •Spring water — according to cups (infusion)
- •Incense or cardamom — optional (aroma of hospitality)
Ethiopian-Style Harar Coffee
A very fragrant coffee, made from Harar beans roasted on the spot and infused in a clay coffee pot. A drink of welcome in Ethiopia, it is served in small cups, boiling hot.
Why this dish? Settled in Harar from 1880, Rimbaud became a merchant and coffee exporter: he weighed, shipped, and tasted every day the bean that the city traded toward Aden.
Here in Harar, I set down the pen for the scale: coffee, that is my verse now! They roast the beans before you on a plate, the smell fills the courtyard, then they pass it three times through the clay jebena. Drink it without sugar and without ceremony, like a man who is done with the salons of Paris — it's bitter, it's honest, it wakes up those who have dreamed too much.
Ingredients (period version)
- Green Harar coffee beans — a handful (base)
- Spring water — according to cups (infusion)
- Incense or cardamom — optional (aroma of hospitality)
Ingredients
- Harar (or Ethiopian) coffee beans — 4 tbsp (base)
- Water — 500 ml (infusion)
- Cardamom — 1 crushed pod (aroma (optional))
- Sugar — to taste (local sweetener)
Method
- If possible, lightly roast the green beans in a pan until dark brown, then coarsely crush them (or use freshly ground coffee).
- Bring water to a simmer in a clay coffee pot or saucepan, with the crushed cardamom.
- Add the ground coffee, let it rise once without boiling, remove from heat, repeat two to three times.
- Let it rest for 1 minute so the grounds settle to the bottom.
- Pour gently into small cups, without disturbing the bottom; sweeten according to local custom.
How it was made : In Harar, coffee was roasted and ground at the time of serving, then infused in a jebena, a long-necked clay coffee pot. Served in three successive rounds, it sealed hospitality. Rimbaud, as a merchant, handled this product daily, shipping it by caravan to the coast.
The contemporary twist : Served in mismatched cups with a floating cardamom pod, and nicknamed 'the merchant's black ink' in homage to his double life.
Arthur Rimbaud · Charactorium
