In my life, Ethiopian Coffee is essential. In the morning, I drink coffee because if I don’t have coffee my body doesn’t function. Like coffee is mixed in with my DNA, my blood and heritage. Coffee is like my heart and soul. When I need strength, the Coffee calls me. Ethiopian Coffee. When I feel homesick or just miss my home. 

Coffee is a big part of my life because as a baby I had the aroma of coffee. You always smell it everywhere you go. In the mountains, in the middle of nowhere. Someone is brewing coffee, in a hut, a tukul (a home) peole are making coffee. People boil water that they may have walked hours to bring to their fire, boil the water. People either cultivate the coffee beans on farms and brew their own product or buy beans at the market. You get the ripe bean from the tree, it is washed in water, drained, and let to dry. Many people brew coffee from scratch, roasting the coffee beans on a metal plate over the open fire fueled by plant debris that they gather. They incorporate incense in the fire to help it burn and the aroma mingles with the aroma of the toasting coffee and the air is filled with the rich smells. All this for the morning’s first cup of coffee. 

Drinking coffee is something you do with someone, not alone. In rural areas, people mostly enjoy coffee in their homes or the homes of family and friends. In cities, people gather at cafes to drink coffee together. In Ethiopia they have a coffee ceremony, jebena buna. People sit down and talk while they drink their coffee this makes the community strong and connected. When I sip my coffee, I think back to where I was born. I will always remember my homeland as long as I have my coffee. I experienced the coffee ceremony when I visited the village where I was born. I visited my uncle on my dad’s and my aunt on mother’s side. She lived in a rural village in the mountains. I drank coffee with her. I could smell the aroma, very rich and very delightful. When it was ready to be served, she poured coffee into cups and placed a minty bitter herb into our cups with the coffee. We ate bread, dabo, with our coffee. We drank coffee as a large family group in the tukul, sitting together on a long bench and talked. When it was time to go, I was sad. I was enjoying the family get together, that they cared about me and never forgot me. 

Now when I drink coffee in general it reminds me of where I’m from, who I am, but also the culture that is still inside me and never will go away if I don’t drink coffee the right way. Just black, no sugar, no milk, pure rich black coffee. Reminds me of how my mother, who passed away when I was an infant, put a premonition on me that I would fly on a plane. When I was one month old, swaddled on her back, my mother was working in the fields and she said my name: Firew, one day you will fly on a plane and go to American and you will have success and have a family who loves you. I flew on a plane with my adoptive family and I’m here, and I have a family, and I am loved and I am living my mother’s premonition.

Coffee connects people. Anytime I connect to a person that coffee connection turns on. Coffee means family, connection. Friends can be annoying and really mean like coffee can be strong, bitter. When life is bitter, not going good, down low and sad. This is coffee. Life is bitter but also life can be sweet. This is coffee.