Rebecca Fisseha, Writer.

I might be the last member of the ETD to clue in on this (it wouldn’t be the first time of my being the last one to clue in on anything as a member of any grouping of people), but I just learned that I can get macchiatos…anywhere, even here, in Toronto! I had always associated macchiatos with Addis. Those teeny tiny cups budding with foam, the coffee and milk squeezed in between the foam and a sediment of off-white sugar. To me, Addis always = macchiatos – never mind that the drink is obviously an Italian invention. Then, recently, through some stumbling conversations about what I did/did not desire while placing my order at Second Cup (where, incidentally I used to work a lifetime ago; as well as at Starbucks – the Ethiopian to the coffee like the bee to the honey, I guess) I was made to see the light by the barista and told that I could order something that is composed of two shots of espresso and topped with foam, served in a teeny tiny cup, to which I may/may not add sugar as my heart desired. And this magical thing is called…a double espresso macchiato! I still can’t get over it. Of course, the milk is different because the cows are different, the espresso is different because the coffee beans are different, and the water – let’s not even go there, and I have the option of taking it in a paper cup, and so on and so forth a million teeny differences. But at the end of it all,  I can get a macchiato here! It’s almost the real thing, minus coming partially sloshing out of its cup and floating on a lake of coffee in the saucer. I’ll make do.

Now I need to figure out a new “back-home” drink that I can get only when I’m there.

Hmm..what comes thick as batter and sweet as cane and layered like a rainbow?

…spriss, of course!