A history as the birthplace of coffee
The Kaffa region of southwestern Ethiopia is known as the native habitat where coffee trees grew wild, and is held to be the origin of the very word "coffee" (café, Kaffee). Coffee reached the Arabian Peninsula via Yemen around the 15th century, and every coffee culture that then spread around the world traces back to these highlands. Within Ethiopia, the traditional roasting-and-brewing ceremony "bunna" is still part of daily life: green beans are roasted over charcoal and simmered in a clay vessel called a jebena. It is a rare place where coffee has functioned for over a thousand years not merely as a drink but as a ritual that weaves the community together.