It’s still coffee alright, but Tanzanian coffee is stronger, more dense, and more bitter.
It’s not as aromatic as the Ugandan one. Unlike in Uganda where tea connoisseurs have the option of making their own concentrates, in Tanzania the take is universal. The coffee comes from a single source for everyone.
From Hyatt hotel to Four Points by Sheraton, not even the five-star hotels will give you the option of making coffee to your taste and liking.
Well, perhaps the assumption is that when you opt for coffee here, then you must be an extreme coffee drinker. For tea, though, you have the luxury of the tea bags. Ugandans who had carried their ‘I don’t take sugar’ kajanja to the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa ended up taking sugar forcefully.
I mean why would you leave coffee that you yourself ordered simply because it is too bitter. Solution?! Sweeten it. It was a funny spectacle looking at many Ugandans including ministers dash for sugar bowls after one bitter sip.
I’m sure if it wasn’t in public, they would have spat the coffee out. But this strong coffee actually makes better African coffee (coffee with milk). Given how they like chilli in almost everything, it was surprising that ginger is not as well treasured here for teas as it is in Uganda.
It was also amazing to find some Tanzanian hotels serving kipooli/odi (groundnut paste) for bread in place of jam or margarine.
I have always thought that odi originated from Uganda but not even during my upcountry travels have I been served bread and odi.
fkisakye@observer.ug
Source: The Observer