Who we are?

The story of coffee begins in the mists of legend according to which monks in caves and monasteries of the remotest plateaus of Ethiopia used it to keep awake during night prayers for centuries. They were first advised by a goat-herder, Kaldi, who fortuitously observed its refreshing effects on his goats.

Making its way through Arabia into Europe, its consumption is said to have gotten Papal approval in 1615 by Pope Clement III who personally tasted, enjoyed and approved its use. By the 17th Century, it is estimated that at least 300 coffee houses were in operation in the city of London alone providing venue for political and other forms of enlightened social discourses.

Unsurprisingly, having graced conversations in the capitals of Europe for years, by the end of the century, coffee made its way into the New World arriving first in New Amsterdam as New York was then called. Praised by Thomas Jefferson as “the favorite drink of the civilized world” an insinuation to the Boston Tea Party protest of the 1770’s that incidentally marked a cultural shift from tea to coffee in America. According to credible sources, Americans of all backgrounds now consume an estimated 146 billion cups of coffee annually making America the leading consumer of coffee in the world.

President Obama tasted coffee from its genetic origin. He did not come to Black Lion Café in Rockville, Maryland; he went straight to Ethiopia.

For our neighbors who would defer the seven-thousand mile-fourteen-hour journey to Ethiopia to experience the most exquisite coffee in the world, Black Lion Café brings it home directly from its genetic roots.

Black Lion Café sources its coffee from three regions of Ethiopia known for producing some of the best tasting coffee beans in the world. Keffa, the region of Ethiopia that gave the name ‘coffee’ to the bean, Yergacheffe, and Harrar.