By Wondwossen Mezlekia Ethiopia is mentioned many times in Starbucks’ dictionary than in the Bible (where it is cited over 38 times by both Old and New Testaments.) Until recently, company websites and the tiny blackboards hanging in the stores used to rightly feature Ethiopia as the origin of coffee. Lately, however, the company’s coffee education web pages appear to be receding and incoherently abandoning any reference to Ethiopia. Starbucks’ love affair with the name Ethiopia seems to have come to a halt with the origin of coffee renamed as a broader region in the continent. Today, there are three versions of coffee history adapted by Starbucks’ English language websites. The website for North America looks at the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea as the source of coffee: “The first coffee plants are said to have come from the Horn of Africa on the shores of the Red Sea. Originally, coffee beans were taken as a food and not as a beverage. East African tribes would grind the coffee cher...