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By Eskedar Tilahun
Coffee has memory.
In Ethiopia, where I was born, coffee is not just a drink. It is a ceremony. A conversation. A way of saying I see you, and you matter to me. The beans are roasted over an open flame, the smoke curling upward like a prayer. Neighbors gather. Time slows. The world, for a moment, becomes exactly what it should be.
I carried that memory across a desert, across a sea, and across nearly two decades of building a new life. And eventually, I poured it into a cup — and handed it to you.
A Country Left Behind
In July 2005, I left Ethiopia. I was twenty, a student in Addis Ababa, and politically active. After disputed elections, the government imprisoned elected leaders and shot students in the streets. We went out to protest. After that, my life was in danger.
I want to be clear about this. I did not leave because I had nothing. My family gave me everything. I left because I had something — a voice — and using it was no longer safe.
What followed was a journey I do not speak of lightly. I crossed the Sahara with thirty-eight people in a single jeep. I was jailed in Libya. I crossed the Mediterranean in a small boat, pregnant. My daughter, Hana, was born in Malta. I survived things that still live in my body, not only my memory.
It took nearly two years. And then, in February 2007, we arrived in Lithuania.
Starting Over in Vilnius
Lithuania was cold in ways I hadn’t imagined — the weather, yes, but also the strangeness of beginning from nothing in a country whose language, culture, and landscape were entirely foreign to me. We arrived in winter, with nothing.
But I had survived the Sahara. I had survived the sea. I could survive this too.
I learned Lithuanian. I earned a Master’s in International Business. I raised three children. And slowly, carefully, I began to build something.
Eskedar Coffee was born from a simple but powerful idea: that a cup of coffee could be a bridge. Between Ethiopia and Lithuania. Between my past and my future. Between strangers who might, over a shared cup, become something more.
The Ceremony Lives On
In Ethiopia, the coffee ceremony — buna — is one of the most cherished rituals of daily life. It is never rushed. The host roasts green beans by hand, grinds them, and brews the coffee in a clay pot called a jebena. Three rounds are served: abol, tona, and baraka — the last meaning blessing.
Every cup of Eskedar Coffee carries that spirit. Our beans are grown in Yirgacheffe and Sidamo — two of the most celebrated coffee regions on earth, in the country where coffee itself was born — and roasted by hand in Vilnius. These are places of extraordinary altitude, rich soil, and generations of knowledge passed from hand to hand. When you taste the bright, floral notes in our coffee, you are tasting that place. That history. That care.
Wake Up to a Better World
Our slogan — Wake up to a better world — is not only about the morning ritual of coffee. It is a belief. A commitment.
The Eskedar Foundation is working to build a school in Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia. Because education is what changed my life, and it is what I want to give back. Every purchase you make is part of that story.
And through Eskedar Attire, I’ve found another way to bridge worlds — blending African print fabrics with Lithuanian linen, creating something that belongs to both places at once, just as I do.
An Invitation
When you walk into one of our four cafés in Vilnius, or open a bag of our coffee at home, I want you to feel something. Not pity. Not charity. Pride.
Pride in a cup of coffee that traveled an extraordinary distance to reach you, and in the community we are building together, one cup at a time.
Thank you for being part of this.
— Eskedar
Eskedar Coffee — beans grown in Yirgacheffe and Sidamo, roasted in Vilnius. Built by one woman who crossed the Sahara to bring it here. Visit us in Vilnius or shop online. A portion of every purchase supports the Eskedar Foundation’s work building a school in Yirgacheffe.
