About Coffee Togo

Reading time approx. 6 min

Admittedly, you can't know everything. But you can try a little. So I'll do that. I don't know much about coffee. I used to drink more. Now I only drink it for breakfast. I always thought that coffee came from Ethiopia or from Tanja Blixen's farm. But in recent years there have been more and more signs in town where people are selling coffee from Togo: Coffee Togo. I looked it up. Togo is in Africa, somewhere in the middle, more on the left. It's nice to learn something new, especially about the conditions abroad.

I usually drink my coffee at home, sitting at the table. But I wanted to find out how people from Togo drink their coffee, so I went to a cafe where they serve it.

There were no chairs. People were running in and out. That must have something to do with the Togolese way of life. People from Togo are probably pretty bright or hyper-nervous if they don't have time to drink their coffee sitting down. Or they already have so much caffeine in their blood that they can't stay in their chair. That's probably how it is. That's why there are no porcelain cups, only paper cups, otherwise they're too heavy to carry around, especially when running around.

So I got in line at the cash register to order. Now, racial profiling is not okay, but I thought maybe there would be a Togolese there who I could then squeeze out, like they do with people down there. At first glance, there wasn't one there, and I was ashamed of the bad profiling of me, which is politically incorrect, I know. I was curious because I always take the Arabica variety and have never had a Togolica before. While I was waiting in line, the coffee brewer poured new coffee into the filter, but it was from a Jacobs bag.

It made me happy that the Togolese have the used bags sent to them from Germany, and I saw that they are further ahead in terms of environmental protection than we are here, which nobody thinks. That's why it's a nice thing to drink coffee from Togo, because it helps the people there, so it's practical development aid.

When it was my turn, I said "one from Togo". The coffee brewer then said "twelve fifty". I thought that was expensive, but I said to myself, it's for the Togolese, and then the twenty fifty is money well spent. They even have paper cups with their own print, so it's immediately clear what kind of coffee is in them, namely the coffee from Togo. And you can see that the whites share the world with the blacks, the print is half black and half white. The designer did a good job.

Because it was so busy at the checkout, I couldn't ask too many questions and headed towards the exit. To make sure none of the delicious poison spills out of the cup as you walk, you get a lid on it that says: Recyclable. I'm sure that's true, because when they send the used Jacobs bags down there, there's definitely room in the packages for the lids. They can then make wheels for their toy cars or something else good out of them.

I then watched how the others managed it, whether they stopped to drink or whether they drank while running. They drank while running. I am a fan of the Togolese way of life, but I have coordination problems when I have to do so much at once. So I run, drink coffee, be careful not to trip and look ahead so I don't run into anyone. And then I also have to hold the mobile phone, because someone might call, and besides, everyone walks around with a portable phone in their hand these days and I don't want to be old-fashioned.

So I decided to stop. So that I could put my phone in my pocket first. And then take the damn hot mug in my other hand. So that I could finally try the coffee at the end, the one from Togo. That's why I'm out there. What can I say? It's always a bit of a thing with the first time. You haven't figured it out yet. Then it just doesn't taste the same. Like sex. Well, it wasn't bad. But next time I'll definitely taste the finer things. (Christoph Preussler)