Ahweh: The vital fuel of Lebanon
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By Ramsay Short Daily Star 8 February 2004
Coffee is a huge deal in Lebanon. Most of us drink it like water.
In its most popular form, the traditional cup of ahweh (Lebanese coffee) is consumed throughout the day at home, in public cafes and in the workplace.
Drinking a small cup at my local corner shop in Achrafieh has become a morning ritual, and in the afternoon popping out of work to a little bar called Torino Express in Gemmayzeh to have a similar pick-me-up in the form of one of the best espressos in town has become a de facto part of the day.
When visiting friends or family, staying for coffee is an option impossible to refuse and who would want to?
Ahweh is part of Lebanese culture. Children, adolescents, adults and especially the elderly all drink it without discrimination, at breakfast, lunch and dinner. They will no doubt continue to drink it however many Starbucks and other Western-style coffee shops open up offering milky cafe lattes and caramel/flavored chocolates.
The thing about ahweh in Lebanon is that it is strong strong, thick and often flavored with cardamom or orange blossom water. And ahweh contains caffeine, the mostly widely used legal drug in the world.
Why do we drink it? Are we in fact a nation of speed freaks? Or is it just that we like the taste of a good strong coffee?
A bit of both is the answer.
Ahweh is immensely popular for a number of reasons, including tradition, history and taste many people asked here will argue their sittu’s (grandmother’s) ahweh is the best in the country, the best in the region.
Caffeine, of course, is not just consumed in ahweh. It is found in tea, cans of cola, chocolate, cold remedies, sports drinks all substances that we consume often, without thinking at all times of day. But most of our caffeine intake comes from coffee.
A typical recipe, of the sort you see being drunk by old men gambling on the Corniche over tawleh (backgammon) or old women sitting on their front steps in some of the older neighborhoods, and as explained to me by the old women of the little village Jouya in the South, is as follows:
Measure carefully the water and sugar (if you want) in small saucepan or rakweh. Then dissolve the sugar in the water by bringing the syrup to boiling point while stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and then stir in coffee, before returning to the heat and bringing the thick black mixture slowly back to the boil. As the coffee begins to rise, take it off the stove and then again, once the bubbling recedes, return the ahweh to the heat and bring it back to boil. Repeat this procedure three times. Consequently, you will get the maximum coffee flavor without over-boiling, and of course there should remain a thick sediment on the bottom of the pan and a darkish brown foam on the top.
The method of making it is for the Lebanese, like the Samurai warriors of ancient Japan who were committed to seeking perfection in the simplest of everyday duties, a process of intricate perfection. Being laughed at for your ahweh-making skills is hugely embarrassing.
Adding sugar to ahweh increases the caffeine hit dramatically and gives it a virtually instantaneous impact on the heart rate. Shooting the coffee in one go instead of sipping it, especially on an empty stomach can leave you literally out of breath.
What are side effects? In his book, Out of It: a Cultural History of Intoxication, Stuart Walton explains: “Caffeine is intensely diuretic, as are its related compounds theophylline and theobromine, in the company of which it is often found, meaning that intensive users will find themselves needing to urinate to an inordinate degree, and it tends to create peaks and troughs of energy so that an alert period may be followed in due course by relapse into yawning lethargy.”
None of this, however, will stop us Lebanese drinking ahweh in the amounts that we do. We consider it a daily staple that can create a mini crisis at home if we suddenly discover we have run out, especially if the nearest shop has closed. Why? Because it is so addictive.
It is almost impossible to stop drinking ahweh once you have acquired a taste for it. Stopping your daily intake of the caffeine contained inside a cup or two knocks you out. After a few days it is tough to cross a room without stopping to catch your breath, and falling asleep in the afternoon at the office becomes increasingly likely.
The thing is, ahweh is not like the instant coffees, and milky creamy cappuccinos, or even the water-diluted filter coffees that most people drink in the West. The caffeine contained, along with the sugar, means that the Lebanese are regularly drinking a coffee that is that much stronger.
Walton explains in his book that what we become dependent on is the stimulant effect that can be measured in increased neural activity in the central nervous system, augmented heart rate and the turbulent churning of stomach fluids that speeds up the digestive process.
“Caffeine keeps us mentally alert, accelerates our cognitive functions and to some extent keeps our moods buoyant through the day, although an excess of it may make us irritable as well as vaguely nauseous,” he writes.
Allowing for the occasional nausea and other negative side effects caused by large amounts of caffeine, we are unlikely to stop drinking ahweh. It tastes too good, the need is high, and the tradition is an integral part of Lebanese, and indeed Arab and Islamic life.
Ahweh is not going anywhere. As one local website, arabicnews.com, advises: One shouldn’t consider even trying to stop consuming ahweh, for “as soon as you stop drinking it, the government takes away your citizenship and labels you an ‘Alien!’”
Coffee is a huge deal in Lebanon.
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