Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Kahawa ya Tangawizi
Zanzibari spiced black coffee simmered with fresh ginger and cardamom, small, strong cups poured from a brass pot on the street.
Tanzanian · easy · serves 4
prep 5 min · cook 12 min
~37 cal · 0g protein · 10g carbs · 0g fat · 0g fiber · 10g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Kahawa ya tangawizi is Tanzania's ginger coffee, strong black coffee brewed with fresh ginger, warming and aromatic, often sold from small vendors along the Swahili coast. The ginger gives the coffee a spicy heat that reflects the Indian Ocean spice trade that shaped Zanzibari cooking.
Coffee culture runs deep in Tanzania, a major coffee-growing nation, and adding ginger is a distinctly Swahili touch. Served in small cups, often sweetened, it is a bracing pick-me-up enjoyed morning and evening.
Sold by kahawa vendors who carry brass pots through the streets of Zanzibar and coastal towns, kahawa ya tangawizi is a social, everyday ritual.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
4 tbsp ground coffee
4 cups water
2-inch fresh ginger, pounded
5 pods
3 tbsp sugar, to taste (optional)
Instructions
1
Bring the water to a simmer with the pounded ginger and cracked cardamom pods and let them infuse for five minutes before the coffee goes anywhere near it.
✎ Chef’s note
Pound the ginger rather than slicing it, the coastal way; you want its juice in the water, not just its surface.
2
Stir in the ground coffee and simmer gently for 5 minutes to draw out the spice and strength.
3
Let the grounds settle for a minute. Sweeten only lightly, if at all.
✎ Chef’s note
On Zanzibar this is kahawa chungu, bitter coffee, and it is meant to be taken unsweetened or barely sweetened, often with a cube of halua on the side to do the sweetening instead. Mainland cups are frequently much sweeter.
4
Pour it in a long stream into tiny handleless cups, leaving the grounds behind, and serve very hot.
✎ Chef’s note
The cups are small on purpose. You drink it in two or three sips and hand the cup straight back for another, because the point is the sitting and the company rather than the quantity. Coffee sellers work the alleys of Stone Town with a conical copper pot called a dalla kept hot on a little charcoal brazier, clinking a handful of cups together to announce themselves.
Zanzibar Swahili-coast tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Zanzibar. Cloves only reached Zanzibar around 1812, carried from Reunion, and by the end of the nineteenth century the islands were growing something like nine tenths of the world supply. That is long finished: Indonesia now produces most of the world's cloves and the Zanzibari crop is a fraction of what it once was.
🗺️
Tanzania. Zanzibar's spice reputation has hard history behind it. The island was for a time the world's leading clove producer, planted under Omani rule, and the trade shaped what is cooked there: coconut, cardamom and cloves through rice and fish in a way the mainland does not do. Urojo, the Zanzibar mix soup, and mishkaki skewers are the street names worth knowing.
🌍
Africa. Africa's fifty-four nations hold cuisines as different as Morocco's slow-cooked tagines and South Africa's open-fire braai, yet shared threads run through them: ancient grains like millet, sorghum, and teff; stews thickened with groundnut, okra, or palm; and fiery condiments from Tunisian harissa to Ethiopian berbere. Staple starches, fufu, injera, ugali, couscous, anchor communal meals often eaten by hand from a shared dish, where hospitality is a point of honor.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Tanzania
Zanzibar PilauRice simmered with whole spices from the island’s own groves, cardamom, clove, cinnamon, with beef and a kachumbari salad.
MaandaziLightly sweet East African fried dough triangles scented with cardamom and coconut.
Zanzibar UrojoA tangy turmeric-and-mango broth piled with fritters, potato, and crunchy toppings, Zanzibar's famous mix.
Browse all Tanzania recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Tanzania meal
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KashataDessert
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Drinks
Frequently asked questions
What is Kahawa ya Tangawizi?
Zanzibari spiced black coffee simmered with fresh ginger and cardamom, small, strong cups poured from a brass pot on the street.
Where does Kahawa ya Tangawizi come from?
Kahawa ya Tangawizi is a Tanzanian dish from Zanzibar, Tanzania.
Can Kahawa ya Tangawizi be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Kahawa ya Tangawizi recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Kahawa ya Tangawizi safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Kahawa ya Tangawizi take to make?
About 17 minutes total (5 minutes prep, 12 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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