Coffee is Ethiopia’s oldest instrument of diplomacy, and the ceremony says more about origin in twenty minutes than a brochure does in a season. This is the evening where the relationships that carry the rest of the calendar get made.
Heads of mission, trade and economic attachés, cultural counsellors, and the producers whose coffee is being poured. Small by design — the room is sized so that everyone in it can be introduced to everyone else.
The record
This event has taken place; the page above is the record of how it ran.
The calendar carries what is still ahead.