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Wednesday, November 1, 2006

Mortar Macchiato

posted by on November 1 at 13:04 PM

What if we combined Seattleites’ two greatest pastimes: sitting in coffee shops and soothing our liberal consciences? A guy in Ethiopia is making espresso machines from old mortars and I, for one, wouldn’t feel so sheepish about dropping $4 on a latte if it came with the tagline, “Helped clean up old war rubble and feed poor Ethiopians.”

How badass would it be to drink a cappuccino made in a bombshell? More badass than drinking one not in a bombshell and frankly, friends, that’s all that matters.

“The shells were dropped in Ethiopia during the war with Eritrea. They were dropped so people hid them in their homes and now they sell them,” Mr Azmeraw says.

He uses old mortar shells, which stand about one metre high, to make his coffee machines.

He cuts off the pointed ends, seals them and puts holes into the aluminium cylinder. The cylinder channels the water, coffee and milk.

mortarmachine.jpg

via boingboing

Also in Ethiopian Coffee News: Starbucks is blocking the country from trademarking its most popular beans here in the US.

RSS icon Comments

1

Artillery shells make for better espresso urns, IMHO.

Posted by Will in Seattle | November 1, 2006 1:09 PM
2

Puts a whole new spin on, "Give me a double-shot".

Posted by COMTE | November 1, 2006 4:53 PM

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