Jebena (Sudanese Spiced Coffee)
London, United Kingdom · View all recipes
Overview
Green coffee beans roasted, ground with spices and brewed in a clay pot, then poured through a filter of palm fibre. It is Sudanese, and it is a preparation rather than simply a drink. **This page had no recipe card in the source.** The ingredients and method below are reconstructed from its article, and that is flagged. The context is worth stating. Coffee is East African in origin, Ethiopia is where *Coffea arabica* comes from, and Sudan and Kenya are among the places where it was first used. That makes Sudanese coffee culture not an import but part of the plant's home ground, and the source is right to be proud of it. What distinguishes jebena is that the whole process happens at the point of serving. Beans are roasted fresh in a pan, ground by hand, traditionally in a mortar, with ginger, cardamom and sometimes cloves or cinnamon, and brewed in the clay jebena pot the drink is named after. It is then poured through a filter of palm fibre stuffed in the spout. The source contradicts itself in a single sentence, saying the coffee is brewed very sweet and then that it is served black with no sugar. Both practices exist; the sentence as written cannot be true.
AFN Heritage Note
Jebena is Sudanese coffee, roasted, ground with spices and brewed in a clay pot of the same name, then strained through palm fibre. Coffea arabica originates in East Africa, and Sudan is among the regions where coffee was first used.
Ingredients
Dietary tags are provided by contributors as a guide, not verified by AFN, and they depend on the products you buy. If you have a serious allergy, check every ingredient yourself. Cooking, allergies and your own judgement
Directions
- 1
Roast the green coffee beans in a dry pan over medium heat, turning them constantly, until they darken and smell strongly of coffee. This takes around 10 minutes and is the step that makes jebena what it is.
- 2
Let the beans cool slightly, then grind them, traditionally by hand in a mortar and pestle, together with the ginger, cardamom and any other spices you are using.
- 3
Bring the water to the boil in a jebena, the Sudanese clay coffee pot, or in any heatproof pot.
- 4
Mix in the ground coffee and spices and let it come back to the boil.
- 5
Take it off the heat and let the grounds settle for a minute or two.
- 6
Stuff a plug of palm fibre, or a fine strainer, into the spout of the pot and pour through it into small cups.
- 7
Sweeten to taste. Practice varies: Sudanese coffee is often served very sweet, and it is also drunk black without sugar.
Africook’s Notes
Personal notes from Nympha Nzeribe- Roast the beans fresh. Doing it at the point of serving is the whole character of jebena, and pre-ground coffee gives you something else entirely.
- Turn the beans constantly while roasting. They go from properly roasted to burnt in under a minute.
- Grind the spices with the coffee rather than adding them to the pot. It distributes them evenly.
- Let the grounds settle before pouring. It matters more than the filter does.
- A fine strainer works if you have no palm fibre, though it changes nothing about the taste.
- Serve it in small cups. It is strong, and it is meant to be drunk in company over time rather than quickly.
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