Coffee was first cultivated in the Ethiopian highlands, and the ceremony built around it is among the oldest continuous coffee traditions anywhere. It is called buna in Amharic and bun in Tigrinya, and it is performed across both Ethiopia and Eritrea.
It takes one to two hours. That is not inefficiency — the length is the point. The ceremony is a reason for people to sit in one place long enough to actually talk.
Step 1: Washing and roasting
Green, unroasted beans are rinsed in water and then roasted in a flat pan over hot coals, stirred constantly until they darken and turn glossy with oil. The roast is done by eye and smell, not by timer.
When the beans are ready, the host carries the pan around the room so each guest can wave the smoke toward themselves and take in the aroma. This is a genuine part of the ritual, not a flourish — it is an invitation, and guests are expected to respond.
Step 2: Grinding by hand
The roasted beans are crushed in a heavy wooden mortar with a long metal or wooden pestle — the mukecha and zenezena. The grind is coarse and irregular compared with a machine, which is part of why the resulting coffee has the body it does.
The rhythmic sound of grinding carries, and in a village it functions as an announcement: coffee is being made, and neighbours are welcome.
Step 3: The jebena
The grounds go into a jebena — a round-bellied clay pot with a long narrow neck, a spout, and often a small straw lid. Water is added and the pot sits directly on the coals until it comes to the boil. Some households boil it more than once.
The jebena is the single most recognisable object of Habesha domestic life, and it is why so many Ethiopian and Eritrean restaurants abroad use one as a logo.
Step 4: The pour
Coffee is poured in one unbroken stream from a height of a foot or more into small handleless cups called sini, arranged close together on a tray. The pourer does not stop between cups.
There is a practical reason for the height: it aerates the coffee and helps the grounds settle in the pot rather than travelling into the cups. There is also a reason of skill — pouring cleanly from that height without splashing takes practice, and doing it well is noticed.
Sugar is usually added generously. In some regions, particularly in parts of Eritrea and eastern Ethiopia, coffee is served with salt or butter instead.
Step 5: Three rounds
Coffee is served three times from the same grounds, and each round has a name:
• Abol — the first and strongest round.
• Tona — the second, lighter as the grounds give up less.
• Baraka — the third, meaning blessing.
Guests are expected to stay for all three. Leaving after the first is a real discourtesy, because the ceremony is not a beverage service — it is a structured way of spending time together, and the third round is where the visit is understood to be complete.
What else is on the floor
Fresh cut grass is often spread on the ground where the ceremony takes place, sometimes scattered with small flowers. Incense — etan — burns throughout, usually frankincense, which grows in the region.
Something is almost always served alongside: fendisha (popcorn), kolo (roasted barley), or bread. In many households the ceremony happens daily, in the afternoon, and is run by the women of the family.
If you are invited
A few things worth knowing. Accept the cup with both hands, or with the right hand supported at the wrist by the left — the same courtesy used across the region for giving and receiving. Stay for all three rounds if you possibly can. Compliment the roast rather than the coffee itself; the roasting is the part that took skill.
And expect it to be slow. If you are in a hurry, the polite move is to say so before the beans are washed, not after the first cup.
Seeing it drawn
The ceremony is one of the most-illustrated scenes in Ethiopian and Eritrean art, because every stage of it is visually distinctive — the pan over the coals, the mortar, the jebena, the tray of sini.
If you would like a version to sit and colour with children, The Habesha Coloring Book covers the ceremony from roasting to pouring alongside 62 other scenes of Ethiopian and Eritrean life. Details, plus a fuller guide to the dress and instruments that appear in the drawings, are at mesmertigrinya.com/habesha-coloring-book
Tags:
coffee ceremony
habesha culture
ethiopian culture
eritrean culture