Tomoca

Tomoca is the name most people mention first when they talk about coffee in Addis Ababa, and its original shop in Piazza is something of a pilgrimage site for coffee lovers. The company's own website features long-standing customers recalling visits that go back to 1953 and a journey of more than 60 years, and the old shop still has the feel of an earlier era, with its vintage machines and a mixed crowd of office workers, students, traders and visitors.

The Old Tomoca on Wavel Street, near the Piassa Cathedral School, is the one to visit. Customers drink at standing tables and counters rather than lingering over laptops, so it works best as a quick, strong stop of ten or fifteen minutes. Order a macchiato, the drink that became popular in Addis Ababa during the Italian period and is now part of daily life, or a black coffee if you want to taste the beans more directly. A quotation from Honore de Balzac, the French novelist said to have drunk many cups a day, is painted on the wall.

Beans are roasted by Tomoca and sold by the bag, which makes the shop one of the easiest places in the city to buy coffee to take home. Ask staff to grind it for you if you do not have a grinder, and choose a roast to suit the way you brew. The company's website also tells the Ethiopian legend of Kaldi, the herdsman said to have noticed his goats behaving strangely after eating coffee cherries, as part of its story of coffee's origins.

Beyond the original shop, Tomoca runs several other outlets. There is an Office Bar on Churchill Road in Piazza, in the ground floor of Haron Tower; a Meet-up branch on Bole Road; Tomoca Galleria in Sar-Bet in the Fantu Supermarket compound opposite the Canadian Embassy; Tomoca Luxury inside the Radisson Blu Hotel; and the Tomoca Roastery in the Bole Impress building, beside the Kategna restaurant.

The Wavel Street shop combines well with St George's Cathedral, the Adwa Victory Memorial Museum and the Taitu Hotel, all in Piazza, or with a walk towards Merkato further west.