Certified Organic coffee freshly
roasted every day, just for you!
Unique Coffee Blends for
People with Unique Taste
Blonde Roast








One of the first things that you will probably notice when you enter through the doorway of a
Bedouin home is the aroma, ever so light and enticing, of the blond colored Arabic coffee. It will
be most likely that this pungent perfume of fresh coffee is from either the beans being just
ground, just brewed or just being served. It is so much a part of the day of the Bedouin that one
lovely old Bedouin woman told me, "this coffee is my mother, and father", meaning she couldn't
(and wouldn't want to) make it through the day without it! Mind you, this isn't the
black-as-the-ace-of-spades coffee that most English and Americans are used to drinking to give
them a kick-start in the morning. This is very light, usually yellowish or greenish yellow in color
with only a lightly bitter, though pleasant flavor (although there are some tribes like the A'naza, for
example, that drink it much darker and much more bitter).

This same lady, who is from the Ajmi tribe, and was in the vicinityof 85 years old, used to sit with
me several times a week and tell me the tales of her youth. All the time while she was spinning
her tales of yore, she would be going through her daily morning coffee ritual. First she would
have her servant take the fresh greenish colored coffee beans and roast them lightly in an open
pan, that was special only for the coffee beans. When they were lightly roasted, becoming slightly
darker, but not even brown, and their aroma would start to come out, they would be taken and
ground until they were chunky fine. This is traditionally done with a mortar and pestle, although,
many households now use an electric coffee grinder, or even purchase their coffee pre-ground
from the shop. The ground coffee beans would then be placed in the della (the long nosed
Arabian coffee pot -or some people now use another pot for brewing the coffee and then when it
is ready they either put it in the della or put it in a thermos) along with a fair amount of cardamom,
that has been either just opened or actually ground with the coffee beans. This blend is now put
to the fire.    

In the old days, and even now in many homes, especially in the winter, the coffee would be put
on the hot coals of the doowwa (which is a low-to-the-ground, four legged, often intricately
decorated brass grill-like contraption that is used for coffee and tea, and generally warming
those sitting around it). The coffee blend is brought to boiling and then let to brew on a low fire for
some time, until around one third of the water has evaporated (or thereabouts). Then, if she were
so inclined that day, my old Bedouin friend would take a few cloves (which are called mismaar in
Kuwait) and throw them in the della, otherwise, she would lean over as if she were going to tell
me a very important secret, and motion for me to look. She would then reach into her brass
studded wooden chest, where, in one of the drawers, she had hidden her special stash of
saffron! All this would be done with a flourish, as if this were a special thing that was just for me.
She would then proceed to take one of the little handle-less coffee cups, called finjaan, and put a
pinch of the saffron strands in the bottom of the finjaan, and pour over them the steaming hot
blond coffee until the finjaan was just half full. She would then swirl it around and leave it to sit for
a few seconds, and return the now red coffee into the della, where she would let it brew for
several more minutes while swirling it all together every so often. She tested it several times
throughout the process by pouring it into the finjaan in order to see if it had become the perfect
color and aroma.

When she was finally satisfied that the coffee was fit to be tasted, she would put these plant
fibers that she called leefah into the spout of the della (in order to prevent the coffee grounds
from coming out into the finjaan) and holding the finjaan in her right hand, pouring with her left
hand. (I never knew how important that was until one day I held the della in my right hand and the
finjaan in my left, and was told the story of a young boy who did the same thing, and the old man
who he was pouring for, was so insulted that he ' face. I was shocked at that story at first, but
then I realized that, of course! Muslims are supposed to only eat with their right hands and that
includes holding the food, due to the fact that they use the left hand for washing oneself after
using the bathroom!) She would hold the della high up in the air, far away from the finjaan and let
a hot, steaming stream of coffee flow (without losing a single drop) into the tiny finjaan, filling it
up to not more than one half full. This she would give to me, before pouring an identical one for
herself, thereby saying to me Ighday, meaning take. Of course she was talking about the dates,
something that no self-respecting Bedouin household would be without, ever. (Depending on the
season, they would be either dry or fresh, but they always, always had to be there on the tray with
the coffee). And so it would go, on several mornings of every week, for several months, Jaazy, the
old Bedouin woman, who used to say that I was the daughter she never had, and myself, the
American Bedouin Muburgaa (which means woman who wears the veil), would sit, drink coffee,
eat dates, talk and laugh, and she would tell me her long, almost forgotten stories of when she
were a young girl, and the hard life they used to lead, and we would watch TV renditions of
Bedouin life, which she used to explain to me, with just as much gusto as if they were real. All the
while holding my arm tightly, and leaning into me so I could hear her well without her needing to
raise her voice.  

If she only knew how much I cherished (and still do) those lazy mornings, and how much I
appreciate her friendship and the deep personal and cultural value it has had to me, even now,
years later. I think she does know, because her personality and friendship live on in every cup of
Arabic coffee I drink, and that, by the way, is the only kind of coffee I drink!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


More about Blonde Roast
ASPECTS OF KUWAITI CULTURE

Arabic Coffee
Mia Ponzo
August 5, 2001