BUNA TUTE

2020

Come drink coffee

The Buna Tute which translates to come drink coffee is based on one of the oldest ways of drinking coffee, the Ethiopian coffee ceremony. This ceremony is part of the origins of coffee and has great cultural value. Buna Tute is world heritage and is free to use for everyone but there are some things everyone should know:

Buna Tute is preserving the ancient and original Ethiopian way of drinking coffee by resurrecting its ceremony.

Coffee grown worldwide can trace its heritage back centuries to the ancient coffee forests in Ethiopia. There, legend says the goat herder Kaldi first discovered the potential of these beloved beans. Kaldi, noticing that when his goats were nibbling on the bright berries of a certain bush, they became more energetic, chewed on the fruit himself. His exhilaration prompted him to bring the berries to an Islamic monk in a nearby Sufi monastery, but the Sufi monk disapproved of their use and threw them into a fire, from which an enticing aroma billowed. The roasted beans were quickly raked from the ember, ground up, and dissolved in hot water, yielding the world’s first cup of coffee.

While much of the coffee is consumed through modern preparation methods, the traditional way of serving coffee is still a time-honoured tradition in Ethiopia. The ritual involves gathering around an open flame while green beans are roasted in a pan over the fire. They are then ground up, boiled and finally served to the guests attending the event.

The main importance of a coffee ceremony is the getting together with relatives, neighbours or other visitors. This bonding nature of Ethiopia is a key thread in the fabric of its society.

Nowadays coffee is available everywhere, this ensures easy accessibility and rapid consumption. This is rather in opposition to the way coffee ceremonies take place, they take up between 3 and 5 hours per day. Therefore the original Ethiopian cultural values are lost in the western way of consuming coffee.

Buna Tute is here to give this important part of the history a new place in our modern world so it may never be lost. The cup represents the Ethiopian coffee origins. The ears of the cups represent anyone, from any culture, coming together to drink a cup of coffee. No matter who you are, what language you speak and which culture you’re from, drinking coffee is a way to socialise and connect.

This is what drinking coffee is all about, becoming one community even when it’s just for a moment.