Yemen Mocha Coffee Brand Introduction and Mattari Coffee Flavor Characteristics

Yemen Mocha Coffee

Yemen, by the Red Sea, is an ancient Arab country. From ancient times to today, Yemen coffee has relied entirely on manual labour for the whole process, from planting and cultivation to processing. The beans are naturally dried under the sun, resulting in small, hard beans. Originating from the city of Mocha in Yemen, Yemen coffee is known as Mocha coffee. It is a traditional premium coffee with a special, clear taste, carrying some fermented wine flavour and natural acidity. We have selected the widely recognised outstanding Mattari No.9, with its rich texture, excellent mild taste and fruity sweet aroma, to share with you.

Origin

Mattari region, Bany Matar province, northern Yemen (Yemen is a country in Southwest Asia).

Altitude

1,000–3,000 metres

Yemen Mocha has always been my favourite. Rarely can a single coffee be at once wild, gamey and wine-like with fig notes, while also holding mildness, complexity and rich chocolate. Once praised as the wine of Arabia, Yemen Mocha is undoubtedly a gift. Precisely because the earliest coffee trade was exported from Yemen's Mocha port, many people mistakenly believe Yemen is the birthplace of coffee; even now some Europeans still call coffee "Mocha". Since the 17th century, the dry Arabian soil with little humidity in the air has produced particularly hard, small beans. Mocha production has always been limited by local political turmoil and cultivation that doesn't reach economic scale. Among these, the Mattari from the Bani Matar region is representative, with its sweet, smooth and uniquely aromatic taste. With its characteristic slight acidity and strong aftertaste, I believe it is the coffee best suited to post-meal enjoyment, and the finest among Mochas.

For centuries, Yemen's crude, primitive cultivation methods have seen only slight improvement. Coffee trees are planted in small plots on steep mountain slopes, all in areas that are difficult to access. The dry Arabian soil and lack of humidity produce particularly hard, small beans. An ingenious irrigation system brings spring water to terraced coffee gardens enclosed by earth and low walls, and all this work is done by hand. Beans are mostly dried on rooftops or flat ground. Strangely enough, coffee as a drink is not very popular in this region that was first to drink it, and the brewing method is quite poor: the liquid is generally boiled with the bean pods. Small farmers pay more attention to cultivating a medicinal plant called qat, because chewing qat is popular locally, and neglect the care of their coffee trees. Mocha production remains limited by local political turmoil and cultivation that doesn't reach economic scale. Mocha coffee takes its name from Yemen's Moka (Mocha), the earliest coffee export port, which supplied global coffee trade until the end of the 17th century.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Yemen Mocha is prized above all for its wild fruit and wine-like complexity, and if those bright, layered flavours are what you love, FrontStreet's light-roast East African coffees scratch the same itch. FrontStreet Ethiopia Huakui is one of the most successful specialty releases of recent years: its tropical-fruit aroma is remarkably loud, with strawberry, passion fruit, jackfruit and even lychee, plus obvious sweetness and almost no bitterness. Smooth and full of juice, it is what many drinkers call "the coffee that least tastes like coffee".

For fans of a bright, complex acidity, FrontStreet Kenya Cherry Tomato is a Kenyan washed single origin built around vivid cherry-tomato and dark-plum notes with a full, juicy body. Grown at 1,550–1,750 m in the Thika region from the classic SL28 and SL34, it gets a 72-hour double washed fermentation and a light roast, so the cup stays clean and long, with yellow-sugar sweetness and a faint green-tea aroma.

And if you simply want the classic, mellow Mocha-adjacent comfort of bright fruit over soft sweetness, FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Banko Gotiti (Gedeb) delivers white citrus, lemon acidity and jasmine over a gentle, tea-like body — a very approachable way to start exploring this style.