Africa

Snacks from Ethiopia

Ethiopian snacking is kolo, roasted barley mixed with sunflower seeds or chickpeas, eaten by the handful during coffee. Dabo kolo are the little fried bread cubes. Chuko is barley mixed with spiced butter until it is a rich crumble. The jebena ceremony serves popcorn or himbasha-like bread in some houses. Bombolino doughnuts and fettira show Italian and street-fryer layers in Addis.

Updated August 27, 2026

Signature snacks: Kolo, Dabo kolo, Chuko, Popcorn with coffee
Flavor palette: roasted barley, spiced butter, coffee
When people snack: coffee ceremony with kolo or popcorn in three rounds
What travelers buy: kolo, dabo kolo, coffee, honey, chuko if sealed

What to try first

Kolo Roasted barley and legumes, the coffee-ceremony and pocket snack.
Dabo kolo Small crunchy fried or baked bread cubes, slightly sweet or spicy.
Chuko Roasted barley worked with niter kibbeh spiced butter into a rich snack mix.
Popcorn with coffee Unsalted popcorn served beside the jebena in many homes.
Bombolino Addis street doughnuts, an Italian leftover name on a local fryer.
Fettira East African pan pastry, sometimes with honey or egg, eaten as a snack-breakfast.
Honeycomb / tej-shop honey Raw honey as a sweet, beside the honey-wine houses of the capital.

Coffee is a three-round snack service

The jebena comes with kolo or popcorn because you are meant to sit. That is the national snack format: roasted grain, incense, three pours. Chuko, barley crushed with spiced butter, is richer, a countryside and city mix that tastes like niter kibbeh more than like a cookie. Dabo kolo rattles in a tin.

Addis fryers sell bombolino. Bakeries sell cakes that could pass in Nairobi. Neither replaces kolo. Pack coffee, honey, and roasted-grain mixes. Fresh fettira is a morning. Do not reduce the country to injera, which is a meal staple, or to a generic ‘African doughnut’ line that skips the ceremony.

Questions about snacks from Ethiopia

What snacks is Ethiopia known for?

Kolo, dabo kolo, chuko, coffee-ceremony popcorn, and Addis bombolino doughnuts.

What is kolo?

Roasted barley often mixed with chickpeas or seeds, eaten by the handful with coffee.

Is injera a snack?

It is the staple bread for meals. Snacking is more often kolo, dabo kolo, or fried bombolino.

What Ethiopian food travels?

Coffee, honey, kolo, and dabo kolo. Chuko with butter is shorter-lived.

From the journal

No tasting reviews from Ethiopia yet. This page is the research hub. When we eat something from here, the note will land in the journal and on this page.