Touba Coffee

Touba coffee is neither from Touba nor actually coffee. I absolutely love African markets. I love to buy things from barrels and ask questions about the unknown. Friday as we wandered the market I saw what I thought was either strange looking soybeans or white coffee beans. So I asked the patron what they were. He said Touba Coffee. He sold us a bag of the beans ground up and showed me how to prepare them. Tom and I were super excited about this experiment. Upon returning we prepared our coffee and then, smelled it and tasted it. It looked like mud and smelled like camphor. And tasted like coffee mixed with dirt and mud.

When we saw Offie that evening I asked him what Touba coffee was. He started laughing. Ha ha ha ha ha. Why are you laughing at me Offie? Touba coffee is not actually coffee but a plant that grows in this region not near Touba. They named it Touba coffee after one maribou as a marketing gimic so that people would buy it. We were taken in. After having the Touba coffee around the house for a day we decided to throw it out. Everything began to smell like the coffee and the taste was permeating. So that was the end of our Touba coffee adventure.