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The specialty coffee wave can be described as a revival of "craftsmanship over machinery," yet what ultimately governs supply and demand remains the market. Downstream businesses express different coffee styles through various brewing methods, while upstream farmers develop distinctive processing techniques in response to market trends. However, there is one country that has been producing coffee using the most primitive methods since the sixth century—Yemen.

Yemen's Coffee Heritage

Yemen, located in Western Asia, is just one step away from the African continent. Without the promotion by Islamic clerics on the Arabian Peninsula, coffee might still be a wild plant in Ethiopia today. According to legend, coffee was introduced during the sixth century when it was under Ethiopian rule and was named Qahwa, meaning "wine" in Arabic. Later, the Ottoman Empire invaded in 1536 and controlled the coffee trade. To protect export revenues, authorities strictly prohibited the export of raw beans—seeds had to be boiled in hot water before leaving the country.

Until before the sixth century AD, Yemen was known as Arabia, so coffee trees transported from Yemen to other regions were also called Arabian coffee trees. These trees originated from Ethiopia, and it was the Dutch who spread these coffee trees worldwide. Dutch merchants traveling east around the Cape of Good Hope had to pass through Africa's east coast to Yemen's Mocha port before beginning their long journey to India.

Unique Characteristics of Yemen Mocha Coffee

In 1696, the Dutch introduced coffee trees to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and then to Batavia in Java. Yemen Mocha coffee beans are smaller and rounder than most coffee beans, making them look remarkably like peas—in fact, Peaberry beans are sometimes called Yemen Mocha coffee beans. Yemen Mocha coffee beans also resemble Ethiopian Harrar coffee beans in appearance—small in size with high acidity and discernible chocolate notes, making the natural development of adding chocolate to coffee quite logical.

In Yemen, coffee growers plant poplar trees to provide shade for coffee trees. As in the past, these trees are planted on steep terraces to maximize the use of limited rainfall and land resources. Besides Typica and Bourbon coffee trees, more than ten different coffee varieties originating from Ethiopia are cultivated in Yemen. However, even the finest coffee, such as premium Mocha, has its dried fruit pulp still attached to the beans after air-drying. Traditional stone mills are still frequently used to remove the hard, dry shells, resulting in irregular bean shapes and frequent damage to the beans.

Quality and Regional Varieties

Despite Yemen's superior coffee quality—smooth, oily, and aromatic—there are shortcomings: quality cannot be consistently guaranteed, and the grading system for its coffee beans remains uncertain. Traditionally, Yemen's best coffee beans come from Mattari, followed by Sharki, then Sanani. These producing regions all use the natural (dry) processing method, so the coffee beans carry wild flavors. Overall, Yemen coffee beans have distinctive personalities—wild, strong, complex, and stimulating—especially the captivating wine-like acidity and deep dark chocolate flavors that many people love. These coffee beans have low caffeine content and are exported from December to April of the following year.

A persistent problem in the past has been that coffee produced in the northern regions was adulterated with inferior substances before being shipped from the southern port of Aden. Only coffee shipped from the port of Hodeida can be confirmed as genuinely produced in the north.

Yemen Coffee Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted Yemen Mocha coffee beans offer excellent guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they provide exceptional value—at only 85 yuan for a 227-gram package. Calculating at 15 grams per cup, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, with each cup costing less than 6 yuan. Compared to café prices that often run dozens of yuan per cup, this represents a truly conscientious recommendation.

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