Coffee and dirty water

I lived in Zaña, on the northern coast of Peru, between the ages of seven and eighteen. At that time there was no house without a corral and no corral without a pig.

Conceited, the pig was the sanctum sanctorum of the zañera cuisine. One could die of fright if a piece of pig skin did not appear in the middle of one's beaten beans.

I will not detail the pig's own diet, because the hygienists would be scandalised, but a fundamental expression of its diet was what was called ‘dirty water’: husks, leftovers of food or soft drinks, bran and leftovers, water from rinsing and crumbs, unfinished chewings and gualdrapos constituted the syrup with which the pig gave free rein to its most expensive appetites.

I had to remember this when I was in Ethiopia. Coffee, which I love with great enthusiasm, originated in Keffa.

Coffee has revolutionised tables, palates and conversations in the most unlikely corners or countries of the world.

After drinking coffee in Ethiopia, I realised that the coffee I had drunk in other places, especially canned coffee, had not been coffee: it had just been dirty water.

Alfredo Mires Ortiz

In: Librarianship and the bad thief

Ethiopia, May 2001

I think it is necessary to mention that Alfredo recovered his faith and charm for Peruvian coffee since he met the coffee producers of San Juan de Cutervo, in Cajamarca. And I would especially like to thank Don Aníbal Segura and Professor Jorge Carrasco, librarians and coffee growers in the community of San Juan, who enriched Alfredo's life until the end by giving him coffee from their farms. We still receive this precious gift and every time we roast coffee in the house, not only the faces of Aníbal and Jorge appear, but also Alfredo's smile.

Thank you friends and brothers.

Rita Mocker