On a recent trip to the southern city of Bobo-Dioulasso (a 5-hour bus ride from Ouaga) we found proof of Nescafé's dominance in the African coffee market. [See Jon at left with his dream-sized mug - but not brand - of coffee.] The Ivory Coast produces a lot of coffee, but unfortunately (depending on how much of a coffee snob you are) most of it ends up in the instant coffee tin.
So the ground coffee we buy here is from France, but could originate from the Ivory Coast. There are little coffee bars (not exactly like our idea of a 'café' back home) on every street corner in Ouaga, where instant coffee kept luke-warm in thermoses is sold.
It's almost always the men who are sitting at the bar on the stools, listening to the radio or chatting with the guy behind the bar (the barista?) They only serve Nescafé. Perhaps people believe the spiel on the can of Nescafé coffee: 'drinking coffee in the morning gives you a good mood' and 'experts say that drinking up to 4 cups of coffee a day is not harmful to your health' (or words to that effect)
Note: This large mug, on the side of a busy main road in Bobo, is actually a coffee stand. The part with 'Nescafé' on it folds down creating a little serving window.
Cathlin
1 comment:
That coffee window is so cool, I wonder why that hasn't taken off in Sydney....? :)
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