Coffee

Thursday, 23 December 2010 15:56 | Written by EED Admin | | |

Kaffa Region in Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee, hence the similarity in name Kaffa - Coffee. Coffee is called 'Bunna' (boo-na) in Ethiopia, but as the plant spread out in the area as far as the Arabian peninsula across the Red Sea people referred to it as Kaffa or Coffee for the region it came from. The reason for its early spread was as an edible product mostly for the caffeine.

Kaffa province is found south west of the capital Addis Ababa, the regions capital city is Jimma. The region is an ideal agricultural area growing apart from coffee, maize, teff (Ethiopia's staple food) and many other cash crops. The region is also very diverse withlarge Ethiopian muslim population and a mix of different Ethiopian ethnic groups, the Oromo being the largest one.

The area was on a trade route to Sudan and other parts of Africa and also on trade and pilgrimage route to Arabian Peninsula which perhaps explains the spread of coffee in that direction.

A detailed story of Kaffa area is below, taken from the Ethiopia's national airline Ethiopian Airlines in flight magazine known as "Selamata".

The story of coffee has its beginnings in Ethiopia , the original home of the coffee plant, coffee arabica, which still grows wild in the forest of the highlands. While nobody is sure exactly how coffee was originally discovered as a beverage, it is believed that its cultivation and use began as early as the 9th century.