Africa

Snacks from Eritrea

Asmara still snacks like an Italian train station that learned to roast coffee: pastry shops with croissants and pizza al taglio, then himbasha, the celebratory spiced bread, and kolo roasted barley in a pocket. The jebena coffee ceremony comes with popcorn or himbasha, not with a truffle. Kitcha is unleavened and torn. Italian biscotti sit beside berbere.

Updated August 27, 2026

Signature snacks: Himbasha, Kolo, Popcorn with coffee, Asmara pastry
Flavor palette: roasted barley, spiced bread, espresso
When people snack: jebena coffee with popcorn or himbasha, and a pastry-shop stop on Liberation Avenue
What travelers buy: kolo, packed coffee, himbasha the day it is baked, Italian-style biscuits

What to try first

Himbasha Slightly sweet, often cardamom-scented celebratory bread, scored in patterns.
Kolo Roasted barley (sometimes mixed with chickpeas), the pocket grain snack.
Popcorn with coffee The coffee-ceremony companion, unsalted, meant to sit beside the jebena.
Asmara pastry Croissants, cream cakes, and pizza slices from Italian-era shops still in use.
Kitcha Unleavened bread, torn and eaten with honey or as a nibble.

Liberation Avenue pastry cases are not a tourist invention. Asmara kept Italian baking and then put a jebena next to it. Himbasha, patterned and gently sweet, is the bread of holidays that also gets sliced for tea. Kolo is the dry snack that actually belongs in a pocket: roasted barley, sometimes legumes, a crunch with no syrup.

Coffee is a ceremony, not a to-go cup. Popcorn or bread sits on the table while the pot is poured in rounds. Pack kolo and coffee. Pastry is a same-day walk. Do not paste an Addis paragraph here without the Italian shop windows; that mix is Eritrean.

Questions about snacks from Eritrea

What snacks is Eritrea known for?

Himbasha, kolo roasted barley, coffee-ceremony popcorn, kitcha, and Italian-style pastries in Asmara.

Why does Asmara have so many pastry shops?

Italian colonial-era baking stayed in the city's daily habit, alongside coffee ceremony and roasted grains.

What travels from Eritrea?

Kolo and coffee. Himbasha and cream pastries are best the day they are made.

From the journal

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