Kahawa chungu

Ingredients

Coffee

• 60 gcoffee beans, dark roasted
• finely ground
• 1 litrewater

Spices

• 2 tablespoonsgreen cardamom pods, crushed
• 4cloves, optional
• 3cm ginger, sliced, optional
• a small piece of cinnamon, optional

To serve

• no sugar at all
• kashata, coconut sweet
• or halua
• small handleless cups

Directions

1. Grind the roasted beans finely. Grind it just before brewing if you can. Put the water into a metal pot. Add the ground coffee to the pot. Add the crushed cardamom pods.
2. Add the cloves and ginger if using them. Bring it up towards a full boil. Let it rise up the pot as it boils. Let it settle right back down.
3. Return it to the heat and repeat. Never leave the pot unattended at all. Stand over it and watch the surface.
4. Let it sit there for fifteen minutes. Never let it boil hard through that.
5. Take the pot off the heat entirely. Let it stand for five full minutes. Pour it all through a fine sieve.
6. Leave the last of the sediment behind. Pour it into a warm serving pot. Keeping it hot is the vendor’s method.
7. Pour it into small handleless cups. Fill them only part of the way. Serve kashata or halua alongside. Never offer sugar alongside it. Make it fresh again every morning.

Technique

• Kahawa means coffee and chungu means bitter, so the name states plainly that it is unsweetened; the bitterness is deliberate and sugar would make it a different drink.
• Oman ruled Zanzibar from sixteen ninety-eight and moved the sultan’s capital there in eighteen forty, bringing the custom of bitter coffee in small cups, the same practice as Gulf gahwa; Zanzibar was also a major slave-trading centre under that rule, ended in the later nineteenth century.
• Sweetness comes from a coconut kashata or a piece of halua eaten alongside rather than from sugar in the cup, and the beans are roasted far darker than the pale Gulf gahwa.

Substitutions

• Any dark roast coffee works, ground finely since it is boiled rather than filtered.
• Cloves, ginger and cinnamon are optional additions to the cardamom.

Variations

• Some vendors add ginger for extra warmth.
• Kashata and halua are the usual sweets served alongside.
• Gulf gahwa is the same custom with a much paler roast.

History

Sold on Zanzibar and Tanga street corners by vendors carrying a charcoal-warmed brass kahawa pot, an Omani custom kept on the Swahili coast.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kahawa chungu?

Kahawa chungu is a drink from Tanzania: bitter black coffee with cardamom, poured from a brass pot into thimble cups. Sold on Zanzibar and Tanga street corners by vendors carrying a charcoal-warmed brass kahawa pot, an Omani custom kept on the Swahili coast.

How long does Kahawa chungu take to make?

Kahawa chungu takes 10 minutes of preparation and 30 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 8 small cups. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Kahawa chungu?

Yes, within limits. Any dark roast coffee works, ground finely since it is boiled rather than filtered. Cloves, ginger and cinnamon are optional additions to the cardamom.

What is the most important thing to get right in Kahawa chungu?

Return it to the heat and repeat. Never leave the pot unattended at all. Stand over it and watch the surface.