Since I
was in Southern Ethiopia I decided I should try some of the local coffee… One
of the two species of coffee plants is native to the highlands of SW Ethiopia…
Coffee arabica (The other is called Coffee robusta). While the vast majority of
coffees grown commercially all over the world are hybrids of these two species,
it is the Coffee arabica that has the better flavours. The reason that
commercial crops use a hybrid variety is given away in the commonly used name
of the other species…robusta… Its much more tolerant to a wider range of
climates and hardships than the arabica.
But since
I was in the original environment of the Arabica I decided Id try some of the local
brew… Theory being that the local brew no doubt comes from locally grown crops
and likely from smaller, less commercial growers and for both these reasons
probably had a far higher arabica heritage than robusta heritage…
… and it
certainly tastes pretty good…
Now the
local way of preparing coffee is often pretty crude and connoisseurs would quickly point out that it is an almost sacrilegious
way to treat the sacred bean and is certainly no way to get the best flavours
from it… But it is prepared thick and dark and strong and with lots of sugar… I
certainly enjoyed my share J
But I had
a slightly surprising response to it too… Normally I can only have one cup of
coffee a day and it has to be in the morning (not after 1pm) or I wont manage
to sleep that following night… I have a fortunate or unfortunate (depending on
how you see these things) condition that makes me highly sensitive to caffeine…
Its like Im always running on a bit of adrenaline and caffeine just puts the
effect into over-drive… It makes my hands physically shake to the point where I
cant write my name and any sort of fine motor control is impossible (but I can
sure run!). Anyway, so I usually notice it quite clearly when I have had a
coffee for a few hours afterward.
… But the
effect was far more mild here… I thought it may have been due to the altitude
or maybe the vibrations from all the motorbike riding were degrading my nerves
(remember the tingling extremities I mentioned earlier)… But then I did a
little web research (its scary how much we rely on wiki-facts these days)… and
it turns out that another aspect of coffee Arabica is that it has a
significantly lower caffeine content than robusta… and there is even a
particular sub-cultivar (a natural strain) that naturally produces an almost
caffeine free beans with good flavour… So it seems that Im free to enjoy at
least two shots of coffee a day while Im in the area J
And in
the larger towns you can usually find a little café somewhere on the main
street that has a good quality espresso machine and they can make you a nice
shot of coffee with a great creama that would keep those coffee aficionados
quite happy… I have been enjoying both preparation methods quite happily while
Ive been here… and Im going to look into buying beans of that caffeine free
strain via internet when I get back home J
