N 105  Coffee and Me  ( Part  1 )

Though  many people in Myanmar don’t drink coffee throughout their lives I am not one of them.

What we eat and drink and how to prepare them come to us from family traditions, especially the parents, who are the nearest kin to us. The staple foods for us Shan people are sticky rice and curries prepared by using soy powder and other ingredients. As for drinks the Shan people like to drink hot green tea. This tea is drunk throughout the day and guests are also entertained with it,  which is fragrant and delicious when roasted over fire. Coffee is something which is alien to Shan and also other ethnic people of the rural areas.

But this coffee had been an important beverage to people of the west, though it is not their native crop.

Excerpt from the book ; How to make Coffee….

( The coffee bean is believed to have originally evolved in the wild of East Africa. One popular legend has it that coffee’s introduction to human race came about when a young Ethiopian found his goats prancing tirelessly after chewing on an unusual plant. Having sampled some of it himself and feeling energized as a consequence the goatherd brought some of the magical plant back to his community . Words spread and the rest is history.

The earliest evidence of human cultivation of the coffee plant has been traced back to the 15^th century in Yemen. From there it travelled to the Arabian Peninsular and then to Europe, and the rest of the world.)

for our country it may be the English who introduced it  to us after they had taken our country. So at the time I was born coffee culture had take firm roots in big towns and cities.

I remember that my family had been drinking coffee since I was small. As cows were raised in Taunggyi by Hindu Indians we could easily buy milk from them. These milkmen came and delivered milk regualarly at people’s homes. They weighed  their milk by tin cups of 25 or 50 ticals and collected the bill at the end of each month.We usually boiled the  milk  first before consuming. Maybe to reduce water added to it , and also to kill viruses if there were some.

To make coffee by our way we put  one or two teaspoons of coffee into a cup and then poured  hot boiling water was over it. After adding  sugar and  milk and  stirring well the coffee is ready for drinking. I remember that beside  some locally produced coffee powder there were also imported coffee like Polson in those days.

We didn’t  think it was so bothersome to make coffee like that in those days , because there were no other options but to do it this way. But nowadays when there are readymade 3 in 1 coffee of various brands people who do not know the disadvantages of coffee mix prefer these coffee mix .Because the prices  are so cheap manufacturers cannot use real coffee, but substitutes like pounded outer coverings of coconut with some coffee essence added. So even when we are drinking these coffee mix we will not be able to enjoy the effect of real coffee.

Coffee does not have much nutritional value. Only caffeine is the most significant component in it . The  beneficial effects of caffeine are improved attention, alertness and physical performance, but there may also be adverse effects like disturbed sleep patterns.

Despite its advantage or disadvantages, I will not refrain from drinking coffee. There are many people who are addicted to drugs and and alcohol . Some to tea and or other kinds of foods. It can be said I am addicted to coffee. If I have  not taken a cup of coffee in the morning I would feel as if something is missing, something not yet accomplished.

So as long as my life and my health permit me I will be satisfied if I have a cup of coffee in the morning and another at tea time.