Bedouin Coffee in Deserts

Don is all excited and bushed after probably a really good amount of time on safari!
All my limbs feel heavy. And sand storm picking up after sunset making my eyes have difficulty to open up for the photo op, at the request of, nicked named Lone Wolf, a famous veteran journalist who is accompanying our airlines VIP FAM tour


“One cup of coffee for the guest, one for enjoyment and one for the sword” is an old Arabic proverb and one integral to Bedouin culture



We track down the REAL lone Bedouins family out in the wilds


While most Bedouins have abandoned their nomadic and tribal traditions for modern urban lifestyle, we track down the REAL lone Bedouins family, instead of group settlements, out in the vast deserts, all the way from U.A.E. to Oman. Yemen next.



We track down the REAL lone Bedouins family out in the wilds


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Bedouin form a part of, but are not synonymous with, the modern concept of the Arabs. Bedouins have been referred to by various names throughout history, including Qedarites in the Old Testament and "arab" by the Assyrians (ar-ba-a-a being a nisba of the noun arab, a name still used for Bedouins today).



We are also invited into the tent of a Bedouin family in Oman

A coffee pot is filled with water and the grounded coffee mixed with cardamom seeds is poured into it. Then the female member of the family is ritually serving in tiny, egg shaped Feenghal, cups made of china, and the coffee cups are usually half full. And each of us is traditionally going to get 2 more refills.

Just a matter of decorum here: you MUST drink it to show respect and be socially correct!

The first cup of coffee, called Al Heif, has to be poured and tasted by the host himself to make sure the coffee is safe to wash down, usually with preserved dates to give the somewhat sweet taste. The second cup of coffee, Al Keif, should be poured and tasted by the guest themselves. Al Dheif, the cup of the guest, is the third cup of coffee to be poured.

When the you have had enough, no more refill needed, then just hold the little coffee cup by placing the hand over the cup and then wiggles the cup by turning your wrist a few times.

Do not drink the whole cup otherwise you will be gulping down a mouth full of sandy cardamom seeds and coffee grounds. Just my cum grano salis (grain of sand, sorry, salt)!

Khalid's story debunked

"Arabian coffee-drinking began almost 12 centuries ago (850 A.D.) when an Abyssinian goat herder named Khalid/Kaldi noticed that while the afternoon sun made him drowsy, his flock frolicked and skipped about after nibbling at some berries. Khalid either ate the berries whole, or ground and boiled them.

When his wife saw how energetic the normally exhausted Khalid was, she urged him to share this miraculous discovery with the local holy man at the monastery. The chief monk did not share Khalid's enthusiasm. Declaring the berries "the work of the Devil," he flung them into a fire to banish their offending presence. Soon the room filled with the delicious aroma of roasting berries, and other monks hurried in to discover the source of this new delight."


The wide spreading legend being referred to by Paul Vallely is expounded upon in the Coffee History

Notice abovementioned, that the passage says the goat herder named Khalid (or Kaldi as he is named in another version of the story) was an Abyssinian. Abyssinians were predominantly Orthodox Christians. In addition, there is no such thing as monasteries or monks in Islam. In fact, it is forbidden (Qur'an 57:027). Therefore, if this legend were to be true, Khalid (or Kaldi) would not have been a Muslim, but a Christian.

Also, the discovery of coffee, according to the maronite monk Antonius Faustus Naironus (1635–1707 AD), differs somewhat from the above tale. In "De saluberrima potione Cahue, seu Cafe nuncupata discursus" (1671) he writes, that a herdsman complained to the Prior of a nearby monastery in Abyssinia, that his animals could not sleep. Two monks, together with the herdsman, were sent by their superior to investigate what it was the animals were eating. They discovered coffee plants which they took back to the monastery, where they brewed a beverage from its fruits. They passed the whole night in pleasant conversation, without any fatigue.




more stunning pictures of Wahabah and Wahibah Sands please click below,

Don in the Middle East




Many thanks to Royal Brunei Airlines Brunei/Abu Dhabi/Dubai
also,
United Arab Emirates Tourism and Tourism Oman!