America 101 — Hot Drink Culture — Coffee, Tea & Dawa

Coming Home and Learning How to America, Again

I’ve lived in a few wondrous places and have visited countless others. Throughout all of my travels, one constant has always been true, people love coffee, tea, and other hot drinks in unlimited combinations.

I’ve never had a cup of coffee. I’ve certainly sipped it here and there but it always tasted like what I imagine the bottom of a shoe must taste like — earthy, bitter and disgusting. Before you audibly gasp, my older brother and my sister do not drink coffee, either. Clearly there was a miscommunication in the genetics lab as we come from a long line of proud coffee addicts.

That I do not partake of coffee on a daily basis has always left me somewhat out of the crowd and perhaps never more so than in America. I do not speak coffee. I absolutely do not speak Starbucks and you will rarely find me in one of them, or any other “coffee centric” establishment because I don’t know how to order anything that isn’t a small, medium or large. I find myself looking through the windows of Starbucks once in a while with the same longing to participate and belong as one does looking into a pet store hoping to take the puppy home.

Venti pit bull rescue something or other, 7 pumps, extra drool, please.

There are ceremonies devoted entirely to coffee and my favorite comes out of Ethiopia only because of the ritual — not because of the drink. The “Bunna” ceremony involves selecting green coffee beans, washing them like you would any other bean and removing the bits that don’t belong, and roasting the green coffee beans in a pan over a fire or on the stove (Ethiopian coffee reputed to be some of the best in the world) until they are as dark as needed. Take the roasted beans and grind them (preferably by hand although grinders are becoming more popular) and then boil the coffee in a clay coffee pot (jebena) and serving it in small cups. Salt and sugar are offered on the side. Served with popcorn.

Tea, “chai”, is incredibly popular in the Middle East, Africa, India, and Asia and even more so than coffee in several places. While I do not possess a fondness for hot tea drinking (are you noticing a theme?), I can appreciate the ritual around the beverage. When I lived in Cairo, there were myriad cafes all along every street but these places were strictly men-only establishments. Apparently, men needed a break away from women where they could chat, smoke and drink very strong chai.

Egyptian chai (and this is true just about anywhere in North Africa and the Middle East) is always served in a glass — never in a cup. (I have 6 wonderfully decorative tea glasses I snagged in Morocco and I can report that they are wonderful for wine, too. I bought them in the souk-which is a local market-after the shop owner told me I was single at 46 because my face was wrong but that’s another story.)

To make this properly, you need black tea leaves, sugar (and usually a lot of it) and fresh mint or lemon. Chai is always brewed in the glass using loose leaves which eventually settle on the bottom. Egyptian tea is so strong that it leaches a lot of iron out of the body. While living in Cairo, I produced a campaign instructing teachers how to administer iron tablets to students because of a constant low iron issue.

Asia has its own tea permutation called Bubble Tea. First introduced in Taiwan as a “boba break”, bubble tea is shaken with ice to create bubbles — a foamy layer on top of the drink infused with chewy tapioca balls.

I gagged as I typed the bit about chewy tapioca balls.

Bubble tea on the go is served in a plastic, throw-away sling (chewy tea that pollutes — super). When Singapore started the “circuit breaker” in March, (a much nicer way of saying — “we’re shutting down” — Singapore is all about image), there was an official, public outcry and debate as to whether or not bubble tea was an essential service the same as grocery shopping. One consumer drank so many bubble teas every day that the bubbles (the chewy tapioca sludge) collected in his intestine and colon and stopped the works entirely. Said bubbles had to be removed.

The only hot drink that I really enjoy (save for the errant hot chocolate while walking through Covent Garden in winter) is a hot dawa. “Dawa” is the Swahili word for medicine and a hot dawa consists of ginger, lemon, and honey all brewed together and it is the best remedy for a cold (or flu as we call it outside of America). The very best Dawa ever served can be found at Java Cafes in Kenya. I drank dawa during Kenya’s two rainy seasons and winter — it was glorious.

It is sad? that I will not be able to chime in about my hot beverage neurosis? Perhaps. I cannot wax on about coffee, beans, and my Starbucks drive-thru experiences, my morning hot tea or its chewy third cousin. I’ll never know the anxiety of running out of those absurd, Earth-destroying coffee POD things.

When I wake up in the morning, I am completely awake and ready. Instantly. So, fair warning people. If you ever come to visit me in my future home, you should bring whatever it is you need to prepare whatever it is you drink to be human and functional. I will provide water, a pot of some varying degree, and heat to boil it. Beyond that, it’s up to you.

#youcoffeepeopleneedhelp

#starbucks

#dawa

#javacafekenya

#stopnescafepods

#learningtoamerica

#huffingtonpost