Neldy Jolo
In the cosmopolitan Jolo, people raised with the culture of coffee break. Many coffee shops in Jolo serve coffee even in a half glass. It is for a person who doesn’t want to drink much or having no enough budgets. To order just say “tunga basu kahawa hadja in kaku’” (mine just a half-glass of coffee).
Kahawa is believed to from Arabic Qahwah and English for Coffee. Kahawa is known to be of good for its energizing effect. Coffee is often consumed alongside breakfast at the Tausug home and workplace and even in the farm. It is often served at the end of a meal, normally with a dessert and at times with an after dinner.
What the people can see in the town of Jolo that of many are only two types of establishments: the coffee shops and pawnshops. Does it mean that Tausug pawns their gold just to buy and to drink coffee? Interesting indeed!
Ryszard Kapuscinski even writes about the coffee vendor that drinking coffee in the morning is an age-old ritual in Zanzibar:
“The drinking of morning coffee is an age-old ritual here, with which -- along with prayers -- Muslims begin their day. The bell of the coffee seller, who each day at dawn walks up and down the streets of his district, is their traditional alarm clock. They jump up and wait in front of their houses, until the man bearing the fresh, strong, aromatic brew appears. The morning's first cup is an occasion of greetings and salutations, of mutual assurances that the night passed happily, and expressions of faith that this promises to be - Allah willing - a good day.”
In the medical study says coffee drinking will cause “nervousness” but in the Tausug society, the people feel “nervous” if they cannot drink coffee in a day. Tausug love to drink and serve coffee every day, indeed Tausug is Kahawarista!
