Writer: Anna Nilsson Spets
I was never a lazy mum, I became a coffee addict straight away. My day starts with at least two cups of strong coffee, a splash of milk and a dash of sugar, a cheese sandwich, then I'm fit for fight. During all the travelling I've done, I've tried coffee in different forms, coffee I can dream about sometimes.
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Coffee, what a divine drink and there is coffee that is so good that it curls and makes hillocks on the tongue, then I am almost in heaven.
In Belgium where I live, the coffee is what they call blask, i.e. brown water, many people drink decaf coffee, i.e. without caffeine, it's not for me.
Table of contents
Country of origin of the coffee: Ethiopia
Coffee is originally from Ethiopia and the legend says that a shepherd saw his goats grazing on the coffee beans and became alert, the shepherd introduced the coffee beans to the monks and that's how it is.
And yes, Ethiopia has a wonderfully good coffee, if I stop over in Addis Ababa, I rush to one of the coffee places there and enjoy before the next flight.
In Ethiopia, coffee, buna, is served in the traditional way, a coffee lady roasts the beans over an open fire, grinds them with a wooden mortar, boils and pours between several coffee pots, the coffee pot is called jebena.
In the last round, the coffee is strained through the spike that sits in the coffee spout, served in small earless cups, cini. Three cups with different meanings are drunk.
Coffee, Coffea arabica, grows wild in Ethiopia and the drink itself has been known for more than 2000 years.
Coffee in Tanzania and Uganda
In Tanzania you can also let your taste buds dance, coffee is the country's biggest export and is grown on the green slopes of Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru.
The coffee in Uganda was also not bad at all, the crops are important for small farmers and a source of income. Arabica and Robusta coffee are the main crops grown.
It's great to sip your delicious coffee while various primates cling to the treetops.
Coffee in Europe
The best coffee in Europe is undoubtedly found in Bosnia. Kavu/kafa is served in small cups and the drink provides a flavour experience you can live on for a long time. The coffee is thick and swampy, a sugar cube in the mouth and slurp ...
Bosnian coffee dates back as far as Ottoman times when Turkish coffee was introduced to the Balkans. World class is home-roasted beans that are ground in a mlin, a kind of hand mill. The beans are boiled in a džezva, a copper pot, and the grounds are allowed to settle.
And yes, you can trace in the coffee grounds, it's fun and exciting !
The difference between Turkish and Bosnian coffee is how it is prepared, the coffee is the same. For the Bosnians, coffee is an important ingredient for both everyday and festive occasions, and there is nothing like sitting in a coffee shop and enjoying coffee with a piece of baklava or a piece of lokum.
Turkish coffee is just as good, preferably in Istanbul with a gokaka.
Different coffee in Asia
The world's most over-advertised coffee is Kopi luwak, also known as civet coffee/palm tree coffee with a price per kilo of up to 8,000 bucks. The palm grove eats the fresh coffee beans, poops them out, they are collected, dried and roasted.
And yes, I've tried it and I'm ashamed of it as I realised that many palm martens are in cages. It is not ok.
In Thailand, there is supposed to be elephant poop coffee ...
The worst coffee of my life was in Borneo, the tea plantation we stayed at only had small paper tubes with coffee powder and dry milk from the 1800s type, it tasted anything but coffee.
Coffee at home ...
I have probably since my youth gone through most of the variants with brew coffee, nes coffee, Don pedro, presso, cook coffee and I do not know everything. Now we use Dolce gusto Espresso and it tastes great, a thermos of instant coffee is taken to work every day.
Fika is not done here in Belgium, I am struggling with the introduction of Sweden's most important thing. FIKA !
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Lena - good for the soul says:
Hehe, you have really gone all in on coffee you. I like coffee too, but maybe not quite at your level :-). Always drink with milk so I probably don't feel as much difference as you would without milk. But yeah, sometimes you can really get a buzz from the first sip of a cup. And the morning cup before the day starts is most important.
Have a nice Easter!
Hug Lena
17 April 2025 - 10:11
BP says:
Yes, think what I have learnt now again:-) I had never associated Ethiopia with coffee, but with tea, much like the North African countries. So thanks for that lesson!
I love coffee, but not blask. I use Nespresso and a tiny splash of cream in the coffee. Never sugar. But it's a matter of taste.
Coffee that palm martens poop out - no thanks. It doesn't matter if they are caged or living in the wild.
The worst coffee I have drunk is by far in England, followed by Germany and the USA. In these countries, I crawled to the cross after the first cup of coffee and switched to tea - out of pure self-preservation;-)
A great post and as always great pictures:-)
17 April 2025 - 18:42
Anna Nilsson Spets says:
Thanks for your nice comment. Totally agree about the host countries.
Happy Easter.
18 April 2025 - 6:48
Anna Nilsson Spets says:
Thank you Lena, happy Easter and greetings Enkpg.
17 April 2025 - 18:51