Bean there, done That

It has been called a "mild cocaine" and compared to ephedra and diet pills. Reportedly, it has been used widely in Ethiopia before coffee was discovered by the fair shepherd Kaldi. During a one-pot feast in Addis, coffee world celebrity Tadesse Meskela commented, "You can tell a khat farm from a coffee farm by one simple fact -- the khat farmer will have a concrete home and a satellite dish; the coffee farmers still live in mud huts." Below is a khat ceremony I happened to catch on film -- I cleverly edited myself out of the chewing ritual just in case the DEA decided to detain me à la Amy Winehouse.

khat ceremony (also spelled chat, quat, etc) from hebberoy on Vimeo.

The ritual I filmed is filled with fervor and happiness, and it's not dissimilar to the traditional coffee ceremony that millions of Ethiopians take part in daily.

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