Fairtrade Fortnight ends on 10 March but hopefully its effects will linger on.

The two week event was designed to raise awareness about the Fairtrade brand, which seeks to impose fair terms and conditions on the farmers in developing countries, who sell their products under the scheme.

Have you seen the Fairtrade logo on your packet of coffee, or bananas or chocolate?

There you have it!

The Reading Post recently reported on a rather lovely way of getting into the Fairtrade Fortnight vibe. It published an article about Tutu Melaku, who treated her customers to an Ethiopian coffee ceremony.

Tutu is already famed in the Reading area for introducing customers to the Ethiopian ways and has a weekly Friday night spot with her ‘Tutu’s Ethiopian Table’ at the Global Caff.

This time she wanted to show customers how the Ethiopians do things.

Apparently they do not use coffee machines, but rather prepare coffee in the presence of their guests, so that they can see what happens. They start from fresh coffee beans.

This is rather a fitting ceremony for coffee in fact.

It is said that coffee originated in Ethiopia, when a goat herder noted the effects of coffee beans on the goats which consumed them in his herd.