Coffee is quintessentially a culture before it is a beverage. If you love coffee, you will know that by now. In Ethiopia, history and culture confers coffee with a special spiritual, mystical status. From cultivation to harvesting; from roasting to preparation; the special reverence for coffee shines through. This has been the case for centuries. Walk into any roadside kiosk or a top 5 star hotel, the traditional style of preparing coffee and the quality almost the same. In East Africa, the rise of the middle class and popularity of 'coffee houses' has introduced Italian machines and different styles of consuming coffee, but nothing beats a traditional Ethiopian Arabica espresso.