In coffee's birthplace, they're hooked on the stuff
April 3, 2007

JIMMA, Ethiopia - Inside the coffee plant's corrugated metal fence,
men look more like mules as they lug 100-pound sacks of coffee on
their backs.

But as midday nears, a heavenly scent wafts from the corner, where
Ahmed Achoumeto, 25, pounds a pile of black coffee beans in
preparation for the noontime break.

"I am terribly addicted. If I don't get coffee, I can't see properly," he
said, standing barefoot in the dirt and grinding the beans with a 3-foot
wooden pestle and a mortar made of a hollowed tree stump.

"Almost everyone here is addicted."

Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee. In this caffeine-addled corner of
the world, coffee is a blessing and a curse swirled together in a cup.

Amid the lush hills and misty valleys, peasants endure bleak
conditions and back-breaking labor to bring the beans to market.

Although most of the workers detest the process - the picking,
sorting, washing, shelling and drying - they are also hopelessly
hooked on the sweet and delicate flavor of the black elixir.

Here, comfort comes from the very thing that causes so much pain:
the little brown bean.

People sip the brew morning, noon and night, calling together large
groups of friends and neighbors, burning incense while they roast
the raw beans, brewing the drink in a black pot with a narrow spout
and serving it in small handleless cups. This is not a quick cup of
joe, but a coffee ceremony - a slow, sensual process that soothes
aching bodies and revives minds.

"Coffee is the backbone of our country," said Frew Demeke, 40, a
former official at the Coffee and Tea Development Authority, as he
sipped a steaming cup in a local restaurant. Ethiopia is among the
poorest countries in the world. But as another patron noted, even
the smallest coffee shop has an espresso machine and milk frother.

The plant accounts for more than 50 percent of Ethiopia's exports,
95 percent of which is grown by small farmers.

The coffee plant - a woody perennial evergreen shrub that can grow
to 12 feet - was first cultivated in this region of southern Ethiopia.

The Arabica strain, which today accounts for at least 75 percent
of the world's production, originated in these green, rolling hills.

A popular legend dating to as early as the eighth century claims
that a shepherd discovered the coffee buzz when he noticed his goats
rearing and bleating. The goats had just eaten the leaves and
berries of a nearby bush, and so the shepherd tried some berries
too. Feeling a strange euphoria, the shepherd ran to a nearby
monastery to share his great find.

Thus, a global obsession was born. The monks began chewing coffee
beans before lengthy prayer sessions, and the custom spread
throughout Christian Ethiopia. Coffee traveled along spice routes to
Yemen, Turkey and Europe. Along the way, someone began brewing
the beans to make a hot drink.

Today, the French call it cafe and the Italians calls it caffe.

Whatever the language, the word for coffee points to its birthplace:
this ancient region of Ethiopia called Kaffa, a highland area with
rich soil and cool temperatures that make for the perfect conditions
to grow Coffea arabica.

Little has changed over the centuries. People here still live in mud
huts, bathe in open streams and transport coffee on the backs of
donkeys. And while people don't have much - there is no running
water, and electricity arrived only recently - they do have coffee.

Lots of coffee.

... ERROR:   COFFEE.EXE missing -- insert cup and press RETRY.