Hi, > For an example of what can be done, even with fairly cheap > ingredients, try Trader Joe's Sumatran Lintong; it's a light > roast, and sells for around $6:50 for a 1lb tin. Of late I've > taken to blending this about 50 - 50 with my favourite choice > (Ethiopian Harrar) because the local coffee roasting company > has shut down, and the only two places I've found that sell > Harrar both over-roast it.
in Ethiopia they make a great ceremony of coffee, which they call buna, and roast the beans in front of you on a small tray. The hostess then carries the tray round among the people, and wafts the smoke towards you. The polite response is to use both arms to waft it in towards yourself, almost as though you were splashing your face with water. They then brew the coffee extremely strong - I mean strong strong - and serve it in tiny cups. It's your duty to praise it extravagantly. Of course you spend the next 3 days running around like a blue-a*sed fly, trying to catch up with your eyeballs. But apart from that it's very nice. Ethiopians who come over here tend to be a little shocked at the casual way we treat coffee, wandering the streets with it in a paper cup. http://www.epicurean.com/articles/ethiopian-coffee-ceremony.html -- Cheers, Bob
