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Yemen Mocha Coffee Beans: The Only Living Relic in the Coffee World

Possessing the world's most unique, rich, and fascinating complex aromas: red wine fragrance, wild flavors, dried fruit notes, blueberry, grape, cinnamon, tobacco, sweet spices, woody notes, and even chocolate flavors—you can see various adjectives being used to describe Yemen Mocha coffee beans.

The Homeland of "Mocha Coffee Beans"—Yemen

When it comes to Yemeni coffee, one must mention "Mocha." Everyone has heard of "Mocha coffee," but what exactly is Mocha? There are many answers to this question. Some say Mocha is a specific origin, while in others' impressions, Mocha is sweet chocolate-flavored coffee. In fact, authentic "Mocha coffee" is only produced in the Republic of Yemen on the southwestern Arabian Peninsula, grown on steep mountain slopes at elevations of 3,000 to 8,000 feet, making it the world's most ancient cultivated coffee.

As early as 500 years ago, Yemen was already producing coffee using ancient methods. In the early 17th century, the first batch of Yemeni coffee sold to Europe was exported through the ancient small port of Mocha, astonishing Europeans with its delicious flavor. They began calling the fine coffee shipped from Mocha port "Mocha coffee"—this is the origin of the "Mocha coffee" designation.

Ethiopia, Yemen's neighboring country across the Red Sea, also exported coffee through Mocha port, so Ethiopian natural-processed coffees are often called Mocha as well (such as Ethiopia Harrar). Today, the old port of Mocha has long been abandoned due to sediment accumulation (now known as Al Makha), with exports moving to the northwestern port of Hodeida. However, people have long been accustomed to the Mocha name, and the reputation of Mocha resonates far and wide.

Dark-roasted Yemeni coffee often exhibits chocolate-like bittersweet notes, influencing today's chocolate-flavored specialty coffees to also be labeled "Mocha." Therefore, when you see the term "Mocha coffee," it might refer to pure Yemeni coffee, neighboring Ethiopian coffee, or simply indicate flavored coffee with chocolate syrup. Regardless, for discerning coffee connoisseurs, only genuine Yemeni coffee deserves to be called "Mocha coffee."

It's worth mentioning that just as Mocha has multiple meanings, its English spelling also varies: Moka, Moca, and Mocca are all common spellings. I have seen as many as four different local spellings on Yemeni coffee sacks and documents: "Mokha," "Makha," "Morkha," and "Mukha"—all representing the same meaning.

The Pioneer of Global Coffee Trade

Yemen Mocha is the pioneer of world coffee trade, making invaluable contributions to spreading delicious coffee worldwide. In the 17th century, Yemen Mocha, known as "Arabia" (this is also the origin of the later "Arabica" species name!), crossed oceans to reach European Catholic countries like Italy. For more than 150 years thereafter, Yemeni coffee remained the only coffee origin exported to Europe.

In ancient times, conservative Catholic countries often considered extraordinarily wonderful things to be evil, once burdening coffee with inexplicable sin. It wasn't until the coffee-loving Vatican Pope declared coffee as a Catholic beverage and blessed those who drank it that coffee began to spread widely throughout Europe.

Ancient Cultivation Methods

Today, Yemeni coffee farmers still use the same methods from 500 years ago to produce coffee. Coffee cherries grow naturally on trees without any artificial fertilizers or pesticides. They receive moisture from mountain mists and sparse rainfall in summer, flowering and fruiting, and during the dry winter, mature coffee cherries are allowed to hang on trees to air-dry naturally—this is a very unique and rare practice, made possible only by Arabia's extremely dry climate and intense sun. In other coffee-producing regions, the same method might cause coffee cherries to rot on trees.

Ripe or dried coffee cherries naturally fall from trees, are shaken down, or are picked by hand. Yemeni coffee farmers, who constitute nearly a quarter of the country's total population, spread the cherries with pulp still attached on their home rooftops, small shelters in front of their homes, or even directly on mud-covered ground, exposing them to the intense dry winter sun. After the fruit skin and pulp dry, old-fashioned stone mills (two stones stacked together) are used to grind away the dried hard shells and pulp, and the coffee beans are thus processed.

To this day, a few coffee farms still use animals (such as camels, donkeys) as power sources for stone mills. Compared to Central and South American countries that use advanced mechanical equipment to process large quantities of coffee beans, or even neighboring Kenya with its brief coffee history, Yemen Mocha is truly the only living relic in the coffee world!

Did you know? The Yemeni coffee you drink today is fundamentally not very different from the "Arabian coffee" that European noble merchants enjoyed centuries ago in Europe's oldest cafes in Venice's St. Mark's Square.

Quick! Give Me a Cup of Yemen Mocha!!

Yemen Mocha Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

Yemen Mocha coffee beans roasted by FrontStreet Coffee offer excellent guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they provide exceptional value—at only around 85 RMB per 227-gram package. Calculating at 15 grams of coffee beans per cup, one package can make 15 cups, with each cup costing only about 6 RMB. Compared to cafe prices that often run tens of RMB per cup, this is truly a conscientious recommendation.

FrontStreet Coffee: A Guangzhou-based roastery with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans, while also providing online shop services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473