043 | MEMORIES | ESSAY | FLORA
Memories Brewed in Coffee
Another Journey down memory lane
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My love for Coffee is not the beverage alone; it brings me a plethora of positive memories. So, buckle up, folks; we are going to have another journey in my memory lane.
In our grandma’s yard, there are several coffee trees. Among them, I remember a particular one that had three big branches and was bent almost sideways. My cousins and I loved playing on it by climbing and shaking the branches while shouting loudly.
Our favorite TV show at the time was Robin Hood, so we wanted to be like him and practice our archery skills. We used the coffee tree’s stem as a bow, which was perfect because it could be bent without breaking. We also made arrows from younger coffee stems and practiced shooting.
Fortunately, we had a sense not to shoot at each other. Instead, we used imaginary targets for the practice.
This one time, we built a playhouse on the bent coffee tree using those three branches. We only needed a few pieces of wood for the floor. We covered it with woven coconut leaves, and the roof was also made of woven coconut leaves. We — the gang of cousins, loved spending time inside it, especially on rainy days when it felt cozy.
Unfortunately, our fun was cut short when one of my cousins decided to try smoking. We didn’t have access to any actual tobacco. So we used dried papaya leaves, which we smoked using the hollow stem of the leaf.
We didn’t realize the smoke could be seen from a distance, and suddenly our grandpa appeared at the door. He hit each one of us with a stick taken from the same coffee tree. That was the end of our play tree.
But looking back, I’m glad I was hit because it was the only time I ever tried smoking, and I haven’t done it since.
During the season, all the coffee trees in the area would be covered in small white flowers, and those flowers had a strong pleasant scent. As time passed, these flowers turned into green fruits that gradually changed colors, from yellow to orange and then red. We used to enjoy chewing on the sweet outer skin of the coffee fruit because of its sweet taste.
Actually, Coffee is not native to Sri Lanka; it was introduced by the English as a commercial crop. In those days, Sri Lanka was one of the largest coffee exporters in the world. But unfortunately, Devastating Emily had a visit. A fungal disease led to the downfall of the coffee industry. As a result, Ceylon Tea became more popular, and Coffee was limited to small-scale domestic crops.
There is a book called “Bitter Berries” by Christine Spittel-Wilson that explains this historical event, and I have its translated version. It’s nice to read a chapter or two, of that book on a rainy day with a large cup of Coffee.
During the coffee season, we, kids also used to help pluck the coffee fruits from the branches. Then, we boiled the fruits to ease removing the outer skin and dried them under sunlight. Next, we removed the skin by milling them using a large wooden pestle and mortar, which resulted in almost transparent white coffee beans.
Occasionally, my mother would roast a handful of these beans and grind them using the hand grinder. Nowadays, we use a blender for grinding.
Since we are roasting only up to a certain point, our Coffee is usually brown in color. While it’s best to grind coffee beans right before use, due to practical reasons, we often grind them in advance and store them, just like instant Coffee.
We have our Coffee, the same way we have our tea. We put a couple of spoonful of coffee grounds in a large mug and poured hot water over them. Then we close it with a lid allowing it to seep. We use coarsely ground coffee, as we think it enhances the flavor. If you prefer, you can filter out the particles before drinking.
We typically enjoy our Coffee with a piece of jaggery or a spoonful of sugar in our palm. We’ll take a bite or a lick, then sip the Coffee, alternating between the two for a nice balance of flavors.
Unlike instant Coffee, our house-ground Coffee is believed to cure most stomach issues in our culture. Whenever someone complains of a stomach issue, the first remedy they are given is a cup of Coffee, even before seeing a doctor.
However, excessive consumption of our Coffee may lead to bowel dryness. This is especially important to keep in mind if you are staying up all night at a funeral. In our culture, it is customary to spend the night at a funeral, and you will have a cup of coffee or tea every two hours until the morning. So you might feel inconvenienced the next day when you have your nature call.
Nowadays, I used to have instant ground coffee too, and I wonder why it doesn’t have the same effect as our traditional Coffee.
You see, giving me an opportunity to talk about my past memories is not always a good idea. I tend to get carried away and share every single detail without necessarily conveying a clear message.
Anyway, I think it’s time for a coffee break now, and if you’d like, you can join me for a nice cup of Coffee.
