BATCH [000] · 08.13.26 · ACCRA
The first time I had coffee, I threw up.
I was also 8, but that's neither here nor there.
My mum was making breakfast, and as she typically did, she made me a hot chocolate while brewing herself a coffee — the filter kind. I absolutely loved the smell and summoned the courage to ask for some.
She smiled and said, "No, this one is for adults only."
Obviously, I wasn't going to let that stand. When she left for work, I went to the coffee jar, took a huge spoonful, mixed it with hot water, added some sugar, and drank it straight. Within 15 minutes, I was puking my guts out — and I had a headache for the rest of the day.
Lesson learned.
My next attempt came on my regular solo flights from Lagos to Abuja for secondary school. The flight attendants would ask my seatmates, "Tea, coffee, or juice?" then look me straight in the eye and ask, "Tea or juice?" I hated that. So on one trip, I said, "Actually, I would like coffee." Without missing a beat, she replied, "No — just tea or juice for you, honey."
Thwarted again!
It wasn't until my third year of university that I finally got my first real cup. It was love at first sip, and the burst of energy after? I honestly wish I could experience my first coffee all over again.
Here's the thing, though: coffee is ours. It's native to Africa, first cultivated in the Kaffa highlands of Ethiopia — the region believed to have given coffee its very name.
Today, some 25 African countries grow their own varieties, each unique in taste and character. Ethiopia and Uganda rank among the largest coffee producers on the planet. Yet when the world talks about coffee giants, Africa is treated as a footnote — a supplier of beans, rarely celebrated as a home of coffee culture.
That never sat right with me. We are a people of community, gathering, and socializing — all the things coffee lubricates. Even making a cup for someone is intimate, because everyone takes their coffee a different, very specific way.
With 54Beans, I'm setting out to document coffee and coffee culture in every country on the continent — 54 countries, 54 coffee stories — and to show the world that Africa isn't just where coffee comes from. It's where coffee lives.
Join me on this journey. I promise, it will be exciting.
Housekeeping
The full scorecard lives on the 54 Beans Website
If your café should be on the list, reply and tell me.
Ratings Breakdown
1 — finished it out of politeness
2 — fine, wouldn't cross town
3 — worth the walk
4 — would bring someone
5 — been back on my own money