In Ethiopia, A Cup Of Coffee Is An Invitation To Stay

What if ordering coffee meant agreeing to stay for a while? In Ethiopia, the traditional coffee ceremony is not designed around grabbing a cup quickly. The beans are roasted, ground and brewed in front of the guests, and the coffee is served three times, with conversation running through the ritual.

The ceremony, known as jebena bunna or buna, is part of everyday social life in Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is traditionally performed by a woman of the household, often with grass spread around the seating area and incense burning nearby. There may be popcorn, peanuts, cooked barley or himbasha to eat alongside the coffee. But the food and drink are only part of what is happening. The ceremony creates a setting in which people sit together, talk and stay.

The Coffee Comes Later

The ceremony begins with green coffee beans. They are roasted over an open flame, and once they darken, their aroma is shared with the guests. The beans are then ground using a wooden mortar and pestle before being brewed in a jebena, a clay pot whose shape and decoration vary across Ethiopia. Some jebenas are heirlooms, while others are made by older women using locally available materials.

The finished coffee is poured from the jebena into small, handleless cups, traditionally from a height. The guest has already watched the drink take shape before taking the first sip. The making is as much a part of the process as the consumption. Coffee here is something prepared for and shared with other people, rather than made in private and carried away.

The ceremony can be part of an ordinary visit, but it also appears at weddings and other gatherings. At weddings, the bride often performs the first ceremony for her guests, making the ritual part of the occasion itself. Ethiopian communities abroad also continue the practice as a way of maintaining connections with home and community.

Three Cups, One Conversation

The coffee is served in three rounds. In Amharic, they are called abol, tona and baraka, with baraka referring to blessing. In Tigrinya, the rounds are known as awel, kale’i and baraka. Sugar is commonly added, while some traditions use salt or niter kibbeh.

The three servings give the ceremony its rhythm. The coffee may be prepared again between rounds while guests continue their conversation. The point is not to get through three cups as quickly as possible; instead, each serving extends the gathering. The practice also has a history with more layers than the familiar story of a goat herder discovering coffee.

How Coffee Became Part Of Ethiopian Life

The story of Kaldi, the goat herder whose animals supposedly became energetic after eating red coffee berries, is a legend rather than a documented history. The better-established story begins with coffee's connection to Ethiopia's southern highlands and its later movement across the Red Sea to Yemen. There, coffee became associated with Muslim and Sufi communities before spreading further.

Coffee was not always accepted across Ethiopia's religious communities. Until the end of the 19th century, Ethiopian Muslims drank coffee while Ethiopian Christians were prohibited from doing so. The practice began to change under Emperor Menelik II, who publicly drank coffee and encouraged its acceptance among Christian subjects.

From A Drink To A Social Tradition

Over time, coffee moved beyond those earlier religious boundaries and became part of wider Ethiopian social life. The ceremony that exists today reflects that history: its objects, gestures and vocabulary carry traces of different periods, while the practice itself continues to be adapted to homes, weddings, cafés and communities abroad.

In February 2025, Ethiopia held a national workshop in Jimma as part of preparations for a possible nomination of its traditional coffee ceremony to UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. More than 120 elders, young people, academics, practitioners, cultural experts and government representatives took part, with discussions focusing on transmission and safeguarding.

Which brings us back to the original question: yes, ordering coffee in Ethiopia can be an invitation to stay — to savour the brew as well as the conversation.

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