Kuti (Coffee Leaf Tea)

Kuti is coffee leaf tea: a drink made not from the coffee bean but from the leaves of the coffee plant. In the city of Harar, in eastern Ethiopia, it has been an everyday drink for centuries. Harar was a hub of the coffee trade, and the beans were valuable, kept for trade and for ceremonies, so the leaves became the drink of the household. Some Harari homes even had rooms set aside for storing them. Here’s how it’s made.

The short version

• Made from coffee leaves, not the beans.
• Boiled, traditionally for half an hour or more.
• A pinch of salt in the pot, sugar to serve.
• Tastes like tea, not coffee.
• A Harari tradition in eastern Ethiopia.

How is kuti made?

1. Bring water to the boil, with a pinch of salt if you like.
2. Add the dried coffee leaves. Wikipedia says the leaves are roasted before brewing.
3. Boil them for a long time: SBS describes at least half an hour, as longer boiling is believed to reduce bitterness.
4. Strain and serve hot, with sugar to taste.

Brew mode on this page times a half-hour boil for you.

What does coffee leaf tea taste like?

More like tea than coffee. One producer describes it as like an earthy green tea, but sweeter; another source says it’s closer to black tea. It has none of the roasted bitterness of coffee.

Does it have caffeine?

Some. Sellers say it has less caffeine than coffee, and one claims less than green tea and high levels of antioxidants. Those claims come from sellers and haven’t been independently checked, so treat them with caution.

A short history of kuti

Wikipedia notes that coffee-leaf tea has been drunk in Ethiopia for hundreds of years. Harar was a major trading city, and coffee was a prized commodity there from the late 16th to the 19th century. With the beans kept for trade and ceremonies, the leaves became the Harari people’s everyday drink, and SBS notes, citing Jeff Koehler’s book Where the Wild Coffee Grows, that in Harar even children under twelve drink kuti. A similar tradition grew up in West Sumatra, where the brew is called kawa daun.

Today, producers elsewhere make coffee leaf tea too, such as Satemwa Estate in Malawi, from pruned shoots that would otherwise be wasted: every eight years, Rare Tea Company explains, the coffee plants are cut back to the stump, the two strongest new shoots are kept and the rest are pruned and made into tea. In 2020, the EU authorised infusion from coffee leaves as a traditional food from outside the EU, opening the European market to it.

Can you make it at home?

Yes. Dried coffee leaves are sold by some tea merchants, such as the Malawi coffee leaf from Rare Tea Company. For a Harari-style cup, boil them for a long time as above. For a lighter drink, steep them like an ordinary tea: Rare Tea Company suggests water at 100°C for 2 minutes, tasting as you go.

Kuti vs other drinks from the coffee plant

	Kuti	Yemeni qishr	Coffee
Made from	Leaves	Dried cherry husks	Roasted beans
Taste	Tea-like, earthy	Fruity, spiced with ginger	Roasted, bitter-sweet
Caffeine	Lower	Lower	Higher
Where	Harar, Ethiopia	Yemen	Everywhere

General guidance only. Use coffee leaves sold for drinking, from a reputable supplier, and take care with boiling water.

Kuti vs other methods

• Ethiopian jebena buna: the Ethiopian coffee ceremony.
• Yemeni qishr: a drink made from coffee husks.
• Arabic coffee: light-roast coffee with cardamom.
• Turkish coffee: powder-fine coffee from the Ottoman tradition.

Explore every boiled method in the boiled chapter.