Change Is Brewing

Coffee shops were amongst the biggest casualties of the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, while the café industry suffered, coffee itself was able to survive with consumers attempting to emulate the cups they craved.

- Paula Slier And Sasha Star

MOTORCYCLES weave past minibus taxis as street vendors enthusiastically promote their wares. Flurries of people hurry by in colorful dresses while making their way to and from work. There’s a buzz in the air.

The bustling streets of Addis Ababa, the capital and largest city of Ethiopia, could be mistaken for almost any city on the African continent, but amidst the whirl of daily life in what is known as “the political capital of Africa”, is something that makes the scene characteristically Ethiopian.

The air in the East African country is permeated by the rich aroma of fresh coffee being brewed on almost every corner. Those with well-developed palates pick up hints of citrus fruit and chocolate, berries and spice. It is a heady fragrance that manages to both comforts and invigorate simultaneously.

Too much coffee, people invent things; too much beer and we kill each other. – David Donde

“Coffee is in the blood of every Ethiopian,” says Aman Adinew, who runs a coffee producing and exporting company in Addis called METAD.

“When you go to the mall or anywhere that people gather, there are women sitting and brewing traditional coffee. People sit around short stools and drink a cup or two. In offices, women prepare and serve coffee at least twice a day. So wherever you go, coffee is there.”

It seems natural that the drink has been woven into the very fabric of the country considering it is in Ethiopia that coffee originated.