Professional Coffee Knowledge Exchange

For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style)

Yemen Mocha Mattari

Basic Information

Country: Yemen

Region: Mattari

Altitude: 1,300-1,900m

Varietal: Typica, Bourbon

Process: Natural / Sundried

01 | Origin Overview

The History of Yemen Coffee

Yemen is famous for its frankincense and spice trade, and is the world's first place where coffee Mocha was cultivated. If we trace back to ancient times, this is also where Noah built the ark in the Bible. Legend has it that 3,000 years ago, the legendary Queen Sheba led a large delegation with gold and spices to Jerusalem to meet King Solomon and gave birth to his son. (There are rumors that this son was Ethiopia's first king)

Regardless, perhaps due to ancient historical reasons, it is said that the people of this land still have a strong sense of pride and are extremely independent. Yemen, which continues a lifestyle preserved from thousands of years ago, has many places where the central government's authority cannot reach. Ethiopia, separated from Yemen by the sea, also exported coffee through Mocha Port. Therefore, Ethiopia's natural process coffee is often called Mocha (such as Ethiopia Harra Mokka). Yemen Mocha is the pioneer of world coffee trade, and Yemen's contribution to spreading delicious coffee to the world is undeniable. It was called "Arabian Coffee" (Arabia), which is also the origin of the later "Arabica" name.

It is said that in the 17th century, Europeans first imported coffee and spread it to the world from the world's largest coffee port - Mocha Port. Today's "Mocha Port" has not continued its prosperity compared to its former reputation, becoming a historical port with only white sandy beaches. Even so, it still "travels far and wide" in the name of coffee.

Although Ethiopia is the first country in the world to discover coffee, Yemen was the first country to cultivate coffee as a crop on a large scale. In the early 17th century, the first batch of Yemen coffee was exported to Europe through the ancient small port - Mocha Port, which amazed Europeans. Because all exported coffee bags had to be marked with MOCHA to prove they were transported from Mocha Port, Europeans called the delicious coffee from Mocha Port "Mocha Coffee." This is why early Mocha became synonymous with coffee.

Mokhtar Alkhanshali

Thanks to the discovery of an Islamic scholar, Yemen coffee began to spread its fragrance throughout the world from the 16th century, and within the following 150 years, Yemen became the only source of world coffee supply. However, as coffee was cultivated on a large scale worldwide later, Yemen coffee could not escape the so-called "development trend." Today, as Yemen coffee once again reaches the pinnacle of specialty coffee, we must mention him - Mokhtar Alkhanshali.

A Yemeni-American, his "change" in coffee originated from a single-origin pour-over. It was from that moment that he entered the coffee industry, learning professional coffee knowledge, traveling to all major producing areas in Yemen, creating the "Motta Model" suitable for Yemen's coffee cultivation and management, and constantly striving for near-perfect flavor standards.

Just when he thought he could finally share this rare flavor with the world, the Yemeni civil war broke out, and the entire country was shrouded in the flames of war, with all transportation blocked. To prevent the flavor from being destroyed, Mokhtar went through twists and turns and finally brought the beans to the United States across the ocean.

This sudden war and "accident" not only failed to conceal its surrounding flavors but also added more legendary color to the beans from Mocha Port, Yemen. And the beans from Mocha Port, Yemen, spoke through their flavors, ranking first among the top 30 coffee beans with 97 points in COFFEE REVIEW's annual ranking!

02 | Processing Method

Ancient Natural Processing

Yemen is a classic of ancient natural processing flavors and the world's only fully natural process coffee-producing country. The traditional processing method without a single drop of water has remained unchanged from the 17th century when Europeans became fascinated with wild Mocha until today. This is related to Yemen's extremely dry climate. Coffee is mainly cultivated in the central highlands with an average annual rainfall of only 400-750mm, far below the optimal 1,500-2,000mm rainfall for Arabica.

Yemen coffee grows on steep terrain with little rainfall, poor soil, and insufficient sunlight. These unique and difficult conditions unfavorable to coffee growth have cultivated the irreplaceable Yemen Mocha in the coffee world. The main coffee-producing regions are Sanani, Mattari, and Ismaili.

The Mattari region is located in the highlands west of the capital, with an altitude of 2,000-2,400 meters. It is the highest altitude producing area in Yemen, but the most remote location with inconvenient transportation. Farmers often have to wait for some time before they can transport the harvested coffee.

Due to the water-scarce environment, farmers have not yet been able to introduce more advanced washed processing. The wild fragrance surpasses Harar coffee, making Yemen the best choice for experiencing ancient flavors.

The central highlands of Yemen have rolling mountains and rugged terrain. Small farmers mostly use a fragmented planting method, with a few plants on steep slopes and dozens on terraces or cliffs, each with different soil and microclimate, resulting in different aromatic components.

Yemen farmers' natural processing is rougher than Ethiopia's, directly spreading the beans on rooftops to dry! This is different from the refined natural processing of Yirgacheffe or Sidamo, where red cherries are picked and spread on "raised African beds," and is the main reason for Yemen's particularly heavy wild flavor.

Yemen's natural processing method involves hand-harvesting fully mature coffee beans and then placing the freshly harvested beans directly in dedicated coffee drying fields or their own compacted earthen courtyards to receive sun exposure. During the drying period, wooden rakes are generally used to turn the beans to ensure even drying of each bean. After about twenty days when the coffee drying is complete, the outer pulp and skin are removed to extract the coffee beans. Yemen coffee has rich, complex, wild, and thick flavors, with strong fermentation notes and lower acidity characteristics. Combined with the uncertain factor often hidden in Yemen coffee (the timing of seasonal rainfall), it's not an exaggeration to call it the world's most special coffee.

03 | Green Bean Analysis

Mocha grades are divided into: Sanani. Due to Yemen's low annual coffee production, only about 35% are Mocha Sanani and Mocha Mattari, which can be considered the better quality among Yemen coffees.

Coffee from the Mattari region has the characteristic of "unattractive" appearance, with inconsistent sizes and considerable color variation, looking like it's composed of small pea-like and hollow defective beans.

Because the bean shape is very small, it's also called small Mocha. Mocha is a flat bean, not a round bean. The beans are small but fragrant and rich.

04 | Roasting Analysis

Yemen Mocha belongs to green beans with relatively low moisture content. Considering the inconsistent bean sizes, the dropping temperature for low-moisture green beans should not be too high. Pre-heat for 30 seconds, open the damper to 3, until the green beans turn light green or white, then open the damper to 4, and after first crack, open to 5 (maximum).

FrontStreet Coffee suggests keeping detailed records before roasting: coffee bean moisture content, density, origin, processing method, roasting room temperature and humidity, etc., and planning your roasting curve. Record relevant chemical and physical changes during the roasting process, as this will help you better understand the final roasting results and improve the roasting curve.

Roaster: Yangjia 800N, 550g green beans loaded

Roasting Curve:

Preheat the drum to 170°C, set damper to 3. After 1 minute, adjust heat to 140°C, damper unchanged. Roast to 5'00", temperature 147.2°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration complete. Adjust heat to 110°C, damper to 4.

At the 8'00 minute mark, ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, and the toasted bread aroma clearly turns to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. At 8'23", first crack begins, reduce heat to 60°C, damper fully open (adjust heat very carefully, not so low that there's no cracking sound). Drop at 197.9°C.

Cupping Report:

Medium Roast City (Caramel Aroma): The coffee beans have a peanut aroma before being ground. After grinding, there's a caramel fragrance. During slurping, the layers are complex, with a slight grape acidity appearing at the end of flavor changes in the mouth. The spicy aftertaste is long, with sweet mouthfeel and roundness, maintaining a Middle Eastern milk tea feeling for quite some time. The cup bottom has malt sweetness. Medium-roasted Yemen Mocha will continue to change, so it's recommended to brew 7-14 days after roasting when the complex wild fermentation flavors are at their best.

04 | Brewing Analysis

The condition of the coffee bed cannot be ignored in pour-over brewing, and this must be emphasized! The coffee bed plays a subtle role, one of which is to provide resistance, allowing hot water to stay in the filter cup long enough to ensure sufficient flavor components are extracted.

Medium roast coffee beds must also have certain support strength to perform the "blocking" function. To prevent weakening of the coffee bed's support strength, you must master [water stream intensity], [pouring position], plus [stable circular pouring technique] to form a complete [pouring technique].

Brewing Parameters:

1. Filter: V60

2. Water temperature: 88°C

3. Grind size: Fuji Royal grind level 4

4. Roast level: Medium roast

5. Bloom time: 25 seconds

Flavor: Balanced, chocolate, persistent caramel sweetness in aftertaste

FrontStreet Coffee's Recommended Method: 15g coffee, Fuji Royal "ogigiriba" blade grind level 4, V60 filter cup, 88-89°C water temperature. First pour 30g water for 25s bloom, then pour to 104g and pause. Wait until the coffee bed water level drops to half before pouring again. Slowly pour until reaching 220g total water, discard the last 5g. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time around 2:00 (counting from after bloom and pouring completion).

FrontStreet Coffee Yemen Mocha Mattari Ancient Natural Process Coffee Beans - Freshly Roasted to Order Black Coffee Beans

Purchase link: https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.5-c-s.w4002-15673140460.23.78a826dblEIYqI&id=567246039419

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473