TomC wrote:It's an Ibrik, and it's generally not filtered. Sweet Maria's as well as many other outlets sell them. I imagine it would be sludge city, hence all the sugar to overcome the bitterness from the method.

No it does not look like an Ibrik at all. Also, there is very little sludge.

tamarian wrote:I think a Clever dripper is the closest I found to a Jabana prep.

Yes, the Jabana is exactly what they use. I will have to look into a Clever dripper. I have never heard of it before. Thanks!

Boldjava wrote:Just grab the 'real Haile.' http://shop.brundo.com/product.sc?productId=220

Oakland company.

My daughter spent a year in the bush of Kenya as a nurse, mainly TB and AIDS issues. She went up to Ethiopia for a month to help in the clinic up there. First thing they did in welcoming her was the traditional 3-cup welcome. And, she doesn't even like coffee.

Yes, I have a complete set that I bought in Ethiopia and I am fortunate enough that my daughter knows how to prepare it. However, the whole process is a long drawn out process. I was hoping for an alternative method that would have similar results that I could make during my morning rush to get out the door.

Thanks!

pacificmanitou wrote:Sounds an awful lot like Turkish to me. Not surprising given the geographic closeness. You're going to need an ibrik/cezve and a grinder that will get a very fine grind. Alternately you can use a mortar/pestle.

I had never heard of Turkish before. I looked it up and it sounds very similar, except there is no foam in Ethiopian coffee. I will have to look into it more.

Thanks!

oktyone wrote:Turkish/Arabic coffee brewing probably evolved out of the Ethiopian coffee ceremony, you might enjoy it as well, give it a try, it's dead easy and quite tasty, even without sugar.

Thank you! I will have to look into it.

Thanks!

Boldjava wrote:Just grab the 'real Haile.' http://shop.brundo.com/product.sc?productId=220

Oakland company.

My daughter spent a year in the bush of Kenya as a nurse, mainly TB and AIDS issues. She went up to Ethiopia for a month to help in the clinic up there. First thing they did in welcoming her was the traditional 3-cup welcome. And, she doesn't even like coffee.

Thanks for that link. They have a ton of great Ethiopian products. I will definitely be buying some stuff from them in the future.

Thanks!

I have also had the pleasure of having coffee served in the ceremonial way in Ethiopia. Unbelievable! Occasionally it will be served with butter and chilli's... not so great.

I have done it myself at home just by stirring beans over the stove and then using a grinder. Not bad, not as great as in ethiopia though. I also have a Jabana but their pottery is fired in such low heat that mine did not last.

Marshal, you will see espresso machines in Ethiopian restaurants in Ethiopia as well.... and fuzzball machines. They were occupied by the Italians and it is bizarre to see what was left over. I can't say that the machine coffee was stellar though to my tastes.

jkruer01 wrote:Over the past 12 months I have had the pleasure of taking 3 different trips to Ethiopia. Each trip I was able to drink lots of coffee that was served via the traditional Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony process. This was my first ever experience with coffee that I actually enjoyed. Prior to this my only experience with coffee was the awful taste/smell of your typical office drip brewed coffee pots.

Jeremy,

I've never had the pleasure of taking park in an Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony, but based on your initial post I think that one of the biggest differences that you're seeing between the typical office coffee and the coffee you had in Ethiopia has been the freshness of the coffee, and you'll probably enjoy freshly roasted coffee here in the states with different preps over old, stale coffee typically found in offices and grocery stores.

A good place to get started with freshly roasted, and well roasted coffee is the following list: List of our Favorite Roasters

Coffee from Ethiopia is particularly popular, especially for folks new to specialty coffee since it has such dramatic fruity and floral characteristics that are so much different than stale, bitter office coffee. People will often move on to more subtle washed coffees from Central America, but others never lose the love a good natural processed coffee from Africa (kind of like some people lose the taste for tequila and others, like myself never do).

Once you've got coffee, prep is the next step. The Clever Coffee Dripper is an easy, affordable way to make coffee, one or two cups at a time. The Aeropress also makes good coffee in smaller volumes. You can pair up both of these with metal filters if you like more body and maybe a little silt in your coffee, Able Brewing is one of the companies that makes reusable metal filters. You can also look at French Press, it naturally makes coffee with more body, but you might want an insulated press that holds in the heat, even consider an Espro press. The Czeve/Ibrik makes a thick, strong cup almost like espresso and uses a fine power to brew, but is usually used to make very small cups. There's many other methods too, of course, and you can get into different forms of pour-over with Hario V60 filter cones, Kalita Wave brewers and fancy pouring kettles which become their own form of ritual.

So, how much coffee are you looking to brew in any one sitting? This will help narrow the field in terms of brewers. Also, if you want a preview, check out this site for directions on how to use different brewers to see if it's something you'd be interested in: http://www.brewmethods.com/.

Thanks Chris! I just placed an order for an AeroPress along with a metal Able disk. I will start playing around with it and hopefully get some good results from it.

Thanks!