Café Touba is a Senegalese coffee flavored with jar, Guinea pepper (Xylopia aethiopica). This spice, added to the beans before or during roasting, gives it a warm, peppery taste — impossible to mistake for a regular coffee.
Where its name comes from
Café Touba takes its name from the city of Touba, in central Senegal. It is the holy city of the Mouride brotherhood, a Sufi order founded in the late 19th century. The drink spread from there across the country.
Today you find it everywhere in Senegal: in homes, at terraces, and above all from the street vendors who serve it piping hot and very sweet in small cups.
What’s in it
The base recipe has two ingredients:
- Coffee, usually Robusta, bolder and higher in caffeine than Arabica.
- Jar, Guinea pepper, an African spice with a peppery, woody, slightly bitter aroma.
Some recipes add clove, which brings sweet roundness and extra aromatic power. That is the idea behind our More Clove blend.
What does it taste like?
A well-brewed Café Touba is bold and long on the palate. The attack is that of a strong coffee; then the jar shows up, with a spiced warmth that lingers.
It is neither sweet nor flavored in the industrial sense: the spice is truly in the matter, not added as an aroma.
Three recipes at Exotique Café Touba
- Regular — the traditional version: Robusta and jar, balanced.
- More Clove — the same base, enriched with clove.
- Nouroul Jamal — our ceremonial recipe, with a stronger jar dose.
All three come in 250 g and 1 kg, ground or whole bean.