The ceremony, common to Ethiopian, Eritrean and Arabic cultures, has a spiritual air to it.
A flat pan of green coffee beans is roasted over a traditional charcoal brazier, either inside a room or out in grassy courtyards and knolls. A small ceremonial oven with incense is lit near the brazier in a ritual.
The heady aroma of the roasted coffee beans mingles with the incense, lending the ritual a mystical aura. The coffee cups are placed on a flat wooden stool. Once the roasted beans turn brown and the aromatic coffee oil is drained out of them, they are grounded with a pestle and a long-stemmed mortar. The grounded coffee is then stirred in a black clay pot with boiling water. The brew is sieved several times for the right consistency.
Villagers in Ethiopia say the act of drinking coffee "is transformational as each cup changes the inner persona of the one who drinks it".
