Yemen Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations | Yemen Coffee Brands Introduction | Yemen Coffee Bean Prices

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Introduction to Yemen Coffee Growing Regions

The History of Yemen Coffee Beans

Yemen is famous for its frankincense or spice trade and is the world's earliest origin of cultivated coffee Mocha.

If we trace back, this is also the place where Noah built the ark in the Bible.

Legend has it that 3,000 years ago, the legendary Queen of Sheba, who led a large delegation with gold and spices to Jerusalem to find King Solomon and gave birth to a son, ruled this land. (It is rumored that this son was the first king of Ethiopia).

In any case, perhaps due to ancient historical reasons, it is said that the people of this land still have a strong sense of self-esteem and are extremely independent.

Yemen, which continues the lifestyle preserved thousands of years ago, is said to have many places where the central government's ruling power cannot reach. Ethiopia, just across the sea from Yemen, also exported coffee through the port of Mocha, so Ethiopian sun-processed coffee is often called Mocha (such as Ethiopia Harra Mokka). Yemen Mocha is the originator of the world coffee trade. Yemen's contribution to spreading delicious coffee to the world is undeniable, and it is called "Arabia Coffee," which is also the origin of the later name "Arabica original species."

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—the port of Mocha.

Today's "Port of Mocha" has failed to continue its prosperity compared to its former reputation and has become a historic port with only white sandy beaches.

Even so, it still "travels far and wide" under the name of Yemen coffee.

Although Ethiopia is the first country in the world to discover coffee, Yemen was the first country in the world to produce coffee as a crop on a large scale. In the early 17th century, the first batch of Yemen coffee beans 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.

Yemen coffee beans grow on steep terrain with little rainfall, poor soil, and insufficient sunlight. These unique, difficult, and unfavorable conditions for coffee growth have given birth to the irreplaceable Yemen Mocha in the coffee world. The main coffee growing regions are Sanani, Matari, and Ismaili.

The Matari growing region is located on the highlands west of the capital, with an altitude of 2,000-2,400 meters. It is the highest altitude growing region in Yemen but also the most remote with inconvenient transportation. Farmers often have to wait for a period of time after harvesting before they can transport it out.

Processing Methods

Ancient Natural Process Yemen Coffee Beans

Yemen is a classic of ancient natural processing and the only country in the world that produces exclusively natural process coffee. The traditional processing method that doesn't use water has remained unchanged since the 17th century when Europeans became fascinated with the wild flavor of Mocha. This is related to Yemen's extremely dry climate. Coffee is mainly grown in the central highlands with an average annual rainfall of only 400-750 millimeters, far below the optimal 1,500-2,000 millimeters of rainfall for Arabica.

Due to the water-scarce environment, farmers have been unable to introduce more advanced washed processing methods to this day. The wild flavor surpasses Harar coffee, making Yemen the best choice for experiencing ancient flavors.

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

Yemen farmers' natural processing method is rougher than Ethiopia's. Coffee cherries are not picked when they turn red but are left to dry naturally on the branches until they become purplish-black and fall to the ground before being collected. This differs 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 strong wild flavor.

Yemen's natural processing method involves manually harvesting fully ripe coffee beans and then placing the freshly harvested coffee beans directly in a dedicated coffee drying field or their own compacted earthen courtyard to receive sun exposure. During the drying period, similar to drying rice in Taiwan, wooden rakes are used to turn the beans to ensure each bean dries evenly. 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, bold, and mellow characteristics with strong fermentation flavors and lower acidity. Additionally, Yemen coffee often contains an uncertain factor (the timing of seasonal rainfall) that makes it unpredictable, making it not an exaggeration to call it the most special coffee in the world.

Yemen Coffee Bean Analysis

Mocha Grade Classification: Sanani

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

Coffee from the Matari region characteristics: appearance is "unattractive," uneven in size, with considerable color difference, looking like a mixture of small pea beans and empty defective beans.

Green Bean Information:

Yemen Mocha Mattari

Country: Yemen

Region: Matari

Altitude: 1,300-1,900m

Varietal: Typica, Bourbon

Process: Natural / Sundried

Because the bean shape is very small, some people also call it small Mocha. Mocha is a flat bean, not a round bean. Small but fragrant and rich.

Yemen Coffee Bean Roasting Analysis

Yemen Mocha belongs to green beans with relatively low moisture content. Considering the uneven size of the beans, the drop temperature for low-moisture green beans should not be too high. Pre-infuse for 30 seconds, open the air damper to 3, until the green beans turn light green or white, open the air damper to 4, and after first crack open to 5 (maximum).

FrontStreet Coffee suggests making data 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, which will help you better understand the final roasting results and improve the roasting curve.

Roasting machine: Yangjia 800N, 550g green beans loaded

Roasting curve:

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

At 8'00 minutes, ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, toast smell 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, air 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): Before grinding, the coffee beans have a peanut aroma. After grinding, there's a caramel fragrance. During slurping, the layers are complex, with a slight grape acidity appearing at the end of mouth changes. The spicy aftertaste is long, with a smooth, sweet, and saliva-inducing sensation that maintains a Middle Eastern milk tea feeling for a long time. The cup bottom residue has malt sweetness. Medium-roasted Yemen Mocha will continue to change. It's recommended to brew 7-14 days after roasting when the complex wild fermentation flavor is at its best.

Yemen Coffee Bean Brewing Analysis

The condition of the coffee bed in pour-over brewing cannot be ignored—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. For medium roast coffee beds, they must also have certain supporting strength to perform the "blocking" function. To prevent weakening the coffee bed's support strength, you must master the "water column intensity," "pouring position," and add "stable circular pouring technique" to complete a set of "pouring skills."

1. Filter cup: V60

2. Water temperature: 88°C

3. Grind size: Fuji Mini Rancilio 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 technique: 15g coffee, Fuji Mini Rancilio ghost tooth burr grinder level 4, V60 filter cup, 88-89°C water temperature. First pour 30g water for 25s bloom, pour to 104g water and stop pouring. Wait until the coffee bed water level drops to half before pouring again. Slowly pour until reaching 220g water. Don't use the last 5g. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time about 2:00 (counting starts after bloom pour completion).

Yemen Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted Yemen Mocha coffee beans have full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they offer extremely high value for money. A 227-gram package costs only 85 yuan. Calculating at 15g per cup, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, with each cup costing less than 6 yuan. Compared to cafés that sell coffee for tens of yuan per cup, this is a conscientious recommendation.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473