Recipe for Ethiopian Tea

One of the many benefits of adopting children from a foreign country, has been the blessing of discovering culture through our taste buds.  With two beautiful Ethiopian daughters (age 3 and 14), we have thankfully been led into Ethiopian foods and drink. I think having a 14 year old who grew up within the culture has helped us retain many of the traditions within the Ethiopian daily life.

It wasn't until I pushed my buna (coffee) cup away-that I learned to love Ethiopian tea.  Now I don't know how they prepare this in Ethiopia, in Addis Ababa I only experience a real buna ceremony. But in my Ethiopian church, this tea is served during fellowship time at gatherings close. 

All of us look forward to a cup, each of my kids always line up to get handed their own cup of tea, including our 3 year old.  They normally pair it with Ethiopian bread, which is a yummy partnership: caffeine and carbohydrates-in my book you can't go wrong there! 

Ethiopian traditional tea

What you will need:

tea pot 

(mine is a stove top whistling model-I try to get whistled at a few times a week at least)

4-5 black tea bags 

(well for a typical tea kettle size)

(my Ethiopian friends like the Lipton variety)

8-15 whole cloves

5-8 cardamom (the green whole variety)

one cinnamon stick (about 3 inches long)

fresh cold water to fill the kettle with

sugar to taste (but my Ethiopian friends aren't afraid of sugar, enough said).

Put all ingredients into the kettle.  Bring to a boil.  Let sit for 3 minutes, fish out tea bags (which if you were smart, you let those cute little strings hang out over the edge of the kettle and secure them with the lid).

Pour into cups, add sugar while hot.

Stir...

Drink!

Personally, I don't drink tea black or with tea with sugar, but this is beyond lovely this way.
You can reuse the spices and tea bags for another round,
often I reuse mine for several days before discarding them.
They sit their waiting, patiently waiting for some fresh water, so they can get to business!

To change it up once in a while (hey, a girl has to have change, right?) I sometimes throw in some fresh ginger, a big hunk with the rest of the spices before brewing occurs.

Hope you will give it a try and let me know what you think!

cardomom

(easily found at an Indian market)

cinnamon

(you only need one, but the one I had looked so lonely 

that i brought a friend along for the photo shoot)

 cloves

This is what we're talking about!