National Geographic Traveller India – July 2019

20 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER INDIA | JULY 2019

THE ITINERARY ETHIOPIA

ANDRZEJ KUBIK/SHUTTERSTOCK

THE GREAT ADDIS BEVERAGE BINGE

HIGHS IN THE ETHIOPIAN CAPITAL DON’T END AT COFFEE. TRY HONEY WINE IN TINY SHACKS, SIP SPRIS IN
CHAOTIC CAFÉS, AND NURSE HOMEGROWN WINES INSIDE TRENDY BARS BY BHAVYA DORE

I

never know the answer to the

polarising question, am I a coffee

person or a tea person, since I am

decidedly a coffee-and-tea person. Why

this pressure to choose between two A+

beverages? Luckily in Addis Ababa I did

not have to. All thanks to the spris.

Combining coffee and tea in one

single, potent cup, the spris is bound to

send conservative blowhards keeling

over in disgust. And I concede, it is not

for everyone. But it was certainly

for me.

My first spris was at Raizel Cafe, a

small enterprise in the centre of Addis

Ababa. It arrived in a transparent cup,

a dark, sludgy top layer smothering a

translucent, lighter brown bulk below.

As I drained it, the first hits of chai gave

way to a strong undertow of coffee. I

was an instant convert.

Ethiopia is not an obvious choice

for tourists, a landlocked country

once synonymous with global hunger

and developing world despair. But

Addis Ababa, a city of three million, is

aspiring to build itself as a great African

city in the continent’s fastest-growing

economy. A week later, I was smitten,

spris and all.

But I was not a philistine throughout.

I also consumed pure Ethiopian coffee

repeatedly and enthusiastically during

my eight-day trip. The country doesn’t

let you forget that this is the birthplace

of the coffee bean; legend claims that a

shepherd wandering through Kaffa—the

region that gives coffee its name—

stumbled on caffeinated goats energised

on wild beans. Several centuries later

caffeinated humans continue to get

energised on ground beans.

The local macchiato is a sturdy,

flavoursome bolt of caffeine, chocolatey,

foamy, richly addictive. Then there is

the standard-issue black coffee that

arrives in tiny, chai-style glasses,

bursting with the burnt deliciousness

of fresh roasting. Street-side stalls are

common; but one of the best places

was Tom oc a , a small enterprise with a

no-nonsense decor, busy queues and the

The spris is an authentic Ethiopian speciality, a sludgy and potent concoction made from
mixing coffee and tea.