# Café Touba Source: https://dailyextraction.com/methods/cafe-touba/ Last updated: 2026-10-19 > Café Touba is Senegal's spiced coffee. The beans are roasted with djar, the peppery seed pods of grains of Selim, and often cloves, then ground together. Boiling water is poured through the spiced coffee in a filter, and the coffee is sweetened and frothed by pouring it back and forth between two cups. It's linked with Sheikh Amadou Bamba. ## At a glance - Category: Boiled & Traditional (Percolation) - Difficulty: Intermediate - Origin: Senegal - Also known as: Senegalese spiced coffee, grains of Selim coffee, djar coffee, kafe Touba ## Steps 1. **Roast with the spice**: Roast the coffee beans, adding djar (grains of Selim) and often cloves near the end so they toast with the beans. 2. **Grind together**: Grind the roasted coffee and spices together. 3. **Pour boiling water through**: Put the spiced coffee in a cloth or paper filter and pour boiling water through it. 4. **Sweeten**: Sweeten it with sugar, as it's usually served. 5. **Froth and serve**: Pour it back and forth between two cups from a height to froth it, then serve hot, without milk. **Café Touba** is **Senegal's** spiced coffee, sold from street carts and kiosks across the country. Its flavour comes from **djar**, the peppery dried pods of **grains of Selim**, and often **cloves**, which are **roasted with the beans** and ground together. Boiling water is poured through the spiced coffee in a filter, and it's served **sweet**, frothed by pouring it back and forth between two cups. It's named after **Touba**, the holy city of the **Mouride** Sufi brotherhood, and linked with its founder, **Sheikh Amadou Bamba**. Here's how it's made. ## The short version - **Coffee roasted with djar** (grains of Selim) and often cloves. - **Ground together**, then brewed by pouring boiling water through a filter. - **Sweetened**, and **frothed** by pouring between two cups. - **No milk.** - **Named after Touba**, and linked with Sheikh Amadou Bamba. ## What is djar? **Djar** is the dried seed pod of **Xylopia aethiopica**, also called **grains of Selim** or Guinea pepper. Wikipedia describes its taste as a mix of **cubeb pepper and nutmeg** with overtones of **resin**, and Tasting Table as **bitter-spicy**, with hints of **pine and anise**. In café Touba, it's usually added **near the end of roasting**, so it toasts with the beans; Wikipedia says roasting then continues for about **five more minutes**. ## How is café Touba made? 1. **Roast the coffee**, adding **djar** and often **cloves** near the end. 2. **Grind** the coffee and spices together. 3. **Pour boiling water through** the spiced coffee in a cloth or paper filter. 4. **Sweeten** it with sugar. 5. **Froth it** by pouring it back and forth between two cups from a height, and serve hot. How much spice? Wikipedia gives a typical ratio of about **80% coffee to 20% djar**, New Lines **1 part spice to 4 parts coffee**, and one Cape Town café owner uses **75% coffee to 25% djar**. New Lines reports that most Senegalese vendors brew it with **robusta** from Côte d'Ivoire, and sell it for as little as **100 CFA francs** a cup. At home, you can toast the djar in a dry pan instead and grind it with roasted coffee. ## Who invented café Touba? Café Touba is closely linked with **Sheikh Amadou Bamba**, who founded the **Mouride** brotherhood in **1883** and the city of **Touba** in **1887**, according to New Lines. The French exiled him to **Gabon in 1895**, and New Lines says it was there that he found grains of Selim. Accounts differ on the rest: Wikipedia says the drink came to Senegal when he **returned from Gabon in 1902**, while New Lines says he brought the recipe back on his final return in **1907**. Chef Pierre Thiam, quoted by Tasting Table, ties it to **Sufi chanting**, with the coffee keeping chanters up through long night sessions. I treat the origin story as **tradition** rather than settled history. For nearly a century it stayed mostly within the Mouride brotherhood. New Lines reports that the rise in imported coffee prices from **2008** pushed people towards it as a cheaper local drink, and that an estimated **2 in 3** Senegalese now reportedly drink it. ## Café Touba vs other spiced coffees | | Café Touba | [Arabic coffee](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/arabic-qahwa/) | [Yemeni qishr](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/yemeni-qishr/) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Spice | Djar, often cloves, roasted in | Cardamom, often saffron | Ginger | | Base | Coffee beans | Lightly roasted beans | Coffee husks | | Brewed | Water poured through a filter | Simmered | Simmered | | Served | Sweet, frothed, no milk | Unsweetened, with dates | Often sweetened | *General guidance only. Take care with boiling water and when pouring between cups, and buy djar from a reputable spice supplier.* ## Café Touba vs other methods - **[Arabic coffee](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/arabic-qahwa/):** light-roast coffee spiced with cardamom. - **[Ethiopian jebena buna](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/jebena-buna/):** the Ethiopian coffee ceremony. - **[Yemeni qishr](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/yemeni-qishr/):** coffee husks brewed with ginger. - **[South Indian filter coffee](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/south-indian-filter/):** also frothed by pouring between cups. Explore every boiled method in the [boiled chapter](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/boiled/). ## Words used in this guide - [Robusta](https://dailyextraction.com/glossary/robusta/): Robusta is the common name for Coffea canephora, one of the two coffee species grown for most of the world's coffee; the other is arabica. ## FAQs ### What is djar? The dried seed pods of Xylopia aethiopica, also called grains of Selim or Guinea pepper. Wikipedia describes the taste as a mix of cubeb pepper and nutmeg with overtones of resin. ### How is café Touba made? The beans are roasted with djar and often cloves, ground together, and brewed by pouring boiling water through the spiced coffee in a filter. It's sweetened and frothed by pouring between two cups. ### Why is it called café Touba? After Touba, the holy city of the Mouride Sufi brotherhood, founded by Sheikh Amadou Bamba. The drink is closely linked with the Mourides. ### Who invented café Touba? Tradition credits Sheikh Amadou Bamba. Wikipedia says it came to Senegal when he returned from exile in Gabon in 1902; New Lines says he brought the recipe back on his final return in 1907. Another account ties it to night-long Sufi chanting. Treat the details as tradition. ### Does café Touba have milk? Usually not. It's served sweet and black, frothed by pouring. ## Sources - [How a Sufi saint’s coffee recipe took Senegal by storm](https://newlinesmag.com/essays/how-a-sufi-saints-coffee-recipe-took-senegal-by-storm/) - [Coffee drinks from around the world: café Touba of Senegal](https://www.baristamagazine.com/cafe-touba/) - [The story behind café Touba, the mysterious coffee drink of Senegal](https://www.tastingtable.com/695220/cafe-touba-coffee-senegal/) - [Café Touba](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caf%C3%A9_Touba) - [Grains of Selim](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grains_of_Selim) - [The slow burn of café Touba in Cape Town](https://lifeandthyme.com/drink/the-slow-burn-of-cafe-touba-in-cape-town/)