A Day in the Life of Coffee Drinking
If you are in Europe, it is common to be served a glass of water with your coffee, however, it is best to drink the water first contrary to popular opinion as this clears any odour from your mouth so that you can appreciate the taste of the coffee. Drinking water after your coffee will not only get rid of that great taste in your mouth but will also wash away the health benefits of the coffee in your stomach. Of course you may want to wash away that coffee breath if you have an important meeting afterwards bjt do it gently and don’t erase that lovely coffee feeling inside your mouth.
In Italy, cappuccino and lattes are traditionally drunk in the morning only and never after 11-am - WHY ? Well ! milk based drinks after meals clog up your digestive system with fat solids, making digestion difficult and so espresso and ristretto are the most popular choice of coffee drinkers amongst Italians for most of the day and night.
In Ethiopia, where coffee was discovered, coffee drinking is more about building good relationship and encouraging that neighbourly feeling. Coffee is never drank alone by one person or even by one household. As soon as someone decides to prepare coffee, they invite as many neighbours as possible, sit down, drink the freshly made coffee, chat for about 30 minutes, drink more coffee, chat again for another 30 minutes and have what may be the final round of coffee - usually 3 cups is the standard. In a way you can say that this is caffe culture at its essence - drinking coffee and socializing, fostering good relations with friends and family.
In Brazil - the world’s largest producer of coffee - they love coffee so much that the word for breakfast is actually cafe da manha which means morning coffee. Coffee is traditionally drunk every morning for breakfast.
Contrary to popular opinion, the country that probably produces the highest quality of coffee, Costa Rica, consumes more coffee per day than in Italy. They keeps flasks of coffee with them like people keep water with them to drink when thirsty, so coffee is like water to them. They know they have the good stuff, so why let everyone enjoy it and not them - good on them.
Sudanese Coffee
No other country prepares coffee as the Sudanese do, and if this country acquired culinary fame, it will be for its Jebana (right).
Briefly, in Sudan, poetry is recited during the roasting procedure to entertain the crowd - green coffee beans, usually from nearby Ethiopia, are roasted in a special pot over charcoal. It is then grinded with spices like cloves, ginger and sometimes with cinnamon, using a fundug and mudugga (mortar and pestle). The ground roasted beans are then steeped into hot water and poured into a Jebana, which has a filter made from palm leaves, before being served tenderly in an elaborate presentation into generously filled sugar tiny coffee cups, glasses or more traditionally, a fingan [a small handle-less cup].
(Courtesy: Khalid Jaily)