coffee ceremony

Around 6 p.m. there was a knock on my door and I was invited down to the
garden level floor for a coffee ceremony. I threw on a sweater and my
shoes and headed downstairs where I found two of my colleagues waiting
on the sofa. The housekeeper was dressed in a traditional white dress
with head scarf and she sat on a low stool preparing the coffee. The
process began by roasting green coffee beans on an iron plate over an
open flame until they were blackened. Then she used a wooden mortar and
pestle to pulverize the beans into grounds and scoop them into a small
black jug with a spout and handle. As she did this she had boiled water
in a kettle on the fire to pour into the jug as well. The jug was set on
a 2cm thick ring so it sat on an angle and you could see coffee bubbling
at times from the spout. As we waited she put a few burning embers from
the fire into a large bronze cup that contained incense so that it began
to smoke and fill the room with a light, sweet scent. Finally, we were
given some 'koolah', which is a snack eaten before coffee and in this
case was popcorn piled up on a large dish. Then she put a spoonful of
sugar in small white cups with gold rims and handles on matching saucers
and poured in the coffee. The coffee was dark and rich and served at
just the right temperature to bring out the flavor but not burn even
sensitive lips.