by Fazeena Saleem
Qahwa, Arabic coffee, is a symbol of hospitality throughout the Arab world. Arab hospitality is incomplete without sharing a cup of Qahwa. It is served everyday; at all gathering - marriage or funeral.
Qahwa is traditionally served by the youngest person at the gathering, or by the host, depending on the occasion and the social rank of the host. However, nowadays a ‘Qahwaji’ or coffee man serves at most gatherings.
“This is not only a tradition in Qatar but in all Arab countries, but coffee men are more a Gulf tradition,” says Yousuf Balochi, supervisor at Prestige for Hospitality, a company which provides coffee men for hotels and private gatherings.
“Here everything happens over coffee. Whether it’s a funeral or wedding, coffee men are important,” he said.
The server should always hold the dullah, the traditional coffee pot, with his left hand and the coffee cup in his right. Serving should always start with the guest of honour or the person highest in rank and age among the guests.
When serving, you should pour enough coffee to fill the cup - slightly more than one third, but definitely less than half as over filling indicates that the server is not hospitable and would like the guest to leave as quickly as possible. It’s considered good manners to accept one, two or even three cups.
“When you’ve had enough you signal by lightly shaking the coffee cup,” explained Yousef, who has over hundred coffee men working with him.
Interestingly everyone working in his team as coffee man is Balochi, a tribal society and an ethnic group who are native to the Balochistan region in the southeast corner of Iran. There are a few coffee women from Philippines.
“Majority of coffee men are Balochi. Coffee men are respected by everyone and we enjoy doing this work,” Yousef said.
He proudly recalls an occasion when he served the Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.
