Serving

A shallow, long-handled iron or steel pan used to roast green coffee by hand over charcoal, immediately before brewing, in the Ethiopian and Eritrean coffee ceremonies and across the Horn of Africa. It has no lid, no thermometer and no crank: the roast is judged by colour, sound and smell, and the pan is shaken continuously by hand throughout. The long handle exists for two reasons — it keeps the hand out of the coals, and it lets the finished roast be carried around the room so every guest takes in the smoke, which is part of the ceremony rather than a flourish. Because the roast happens minutes before the grind, this pan does more to the finished cup than any other object in the sequence, and it is the reason no two ceremonies produce quite the same coffee.