Kahawa Chungu

Kahawa chungu, Swahili for “bitter coffee”, is the coffee of the East African coast: strong and black, spiced with cardamom, cinnamon and cloves, brewed over charcoal in tall brass kettles, and poured into small cups for friends sitting on low benches in the afternoon heat. From Mombasa, Lamu and Malindi in Kenya to Stone Town in Zanzibar, it’s less a drink than a meeting place. Here’s how it’s made, how it’s served, and what it means on the coast.

The short version

• Strong, black and spiced: cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, sometimes nutmeg.
• Brewed over charcoal in tall brass kettles, then poured into small cups.
• Little or no sugar for kahawa chungu; kahawa tamu is the sweeter, weaker version.
• Drunk at maskani, street-corner bases where people meet and talk.
• A centuries-old Swahili tradition, according to the National Museums of Kenya.

How is kahawa chungu made?

On the street, The Standard reports, this concentrated black coffee is traditionally brewed over a charcoal stove in beautiful tall brass kettles. A Mombasa seller, Nyamawi Lewa, starts brewing at 4pm so it’s ready for his evening customers at 4.30. Both his coffees use cinnamon, sugar, cloves and cardamom (iliki), and sometimes nutmeg; what changes is the concentration:

	Kahawa chungu	Kahawa tamu
Meaning	Bitter coffee	Sweet coffee
Strength	Concentrated	Less concentrated
Colour	Dark	Lighter
Sugar	Less	More

The Standard doesn’t give quantities. Kenya’s The Star publishes a home recipe for the spiced, Arabic-style coffee that it says has been taken up by Swahili communities and restaurants, using the same spices:

1. Boil 2 cups of water in a small saucepan.
2. Turn the heat down and add 2 tablespoons of ground coffee, 2 crushed cardamom pods, 1 cinnamon stick and 1 teaspoon of ground cloves.
3. Simmer on low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring now and then.
4. Strain through a fine strainer or cheesecloth.
5. Sweeten to taste, or leave it black for a true kahawa chungu, and serve in small cups.

Where is it drunk?

At maskani. In Mombasa, The Standard says, “young and old, men and women consume coffee at maskans (bases) as they share stories on the day’s events”. Sellers set up near matatu (minibus) stages and in neighbourhoods such as Mwembe Tayari, and a small cup costs a few shillings. It’s eaten with mahamri and kaimati (fried dough snacks).

At Jaws Corner, Zanzibar. In Stone Town, men gather where several old alleys meet, at a square once called Soko ya M’hogo (the cassava market) and now known by its Jaws shark murals. Uncornered Market describes small cups of strong, unsugared black coffee brewed in a metal kettle over a sidewalk charcoal stove; Roads & Kingdoms paid 100 Tanzanian shillings a cup in 2015. The corner is where you go for the news: conversation, television, dominoes and coffee, all day.

What does coffee mean on the Swahili coast?

Hospitality, first of all. “The Swahilis use coffee to welcome visitors. A shared cup of coffee helps foster and cement friendships,” Mombasa seller Abdulkadir Ibrahim told The Standard.

Next to Fort Jesus in Mombasa stands a giant coffee kettle on a roundabout, known as the buli, built in 1988, with coffee cups beside it. Athman Hussein of the National Museums of Kenya calls it a metaphor for the shared cup of coffee, and says that “sharing coffee among the Swahili was a cultural tradition for centuries in Swahili towns such as Lamu, Malindi and Mombasa.”

Around Mombasa, kahawa chungu is also said to be an aphrodisiac, The Standard notes. That’s coastal folklore rather than anything proven.

General guidance only. Kahawa chungu is strong, so go easy if you’re sensitive to caffeine, and take care with charcoal stoves and boiling kettles.

Kahawa chungu vs other methods

• Arabic coffee (qahwa): light-roast coffee boiled with cardamom, a close relative.
• Bedouin coffee: bitter coffee poured from a dallah.
• Sudanese jebena: clay-pot coffee spiced with ginger.
• Ethiopian jebena buna: the coffee ceremony of coffee’s birthplace.

Explore every boiled method in the boiled chapter.