Characteristics of Single-Origin Mocha Coffee Beans and How to Buy Them

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Yemen Mocha Coffee

Yemen Mocha coffee is grown in the interior of Yemen on the Asian continent at an altitude of approximately 1,000m to 1,300m in terraced areas. Among all producing regions, the BANI-MATAR and HAYMI areas, meaning "descendants of rain" in Arabic, are the most famous. Because this region has abundant rainfall and occasional fog, and the coffee trees here are almost entirely native varieties, planted using ancient methods and harvested by hand, plus completely natural sun-drying processing, it possesses the unique aroma of native Mocha varieties and a captivating coffee flavor with sweetness amidst acidity.

Yemen Mocha has always been praised as "the wine of Arabia," with a mild yet complex character. Yemen Mocha is suitable for medium to dark roasting. When medium-roasted, it carries blueberry, fruit wine, nut, and slight floral aromas, while dark-roasted coffee reveals a sweetness like sugar-roasted chestnuts upon first taste, along with flavors reminiscent of drinking hot cocoa. It's rich in oils, with a viscous mouthfeel, leaving an impression of mellow fullness.

Historical Background

Until the sixth century AD, Yemen was always called Arabia, thus coffee trees transported from Yemen to other places were also called Arabian coffee trees. The origin of these trees is 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 the east coast of Africa to Yemen's Mocha port before beginning their long journey to India.

In 1696, the Dutch introduced coffee trees to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and then to Batavia in Java. Mocha coffee beans are smaller and rounder than most coffee beans, making Mocha coffee beans look very similar to peas—in fact, Peaberry beans are sometimes called Mocha coffee beans. The appearance of Mocha coffee beans is similar to Ethiopia's Harrar coffee beans—small in size, high in acidity, with a discernible chocolate flavor, making the attempt to add chocolate to coffee a natural development process.

In Yemen, coffee growers plant poplar trees to provide the necessary 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 tree varieties native to Ethiopia are grown in Yemen. However, even for high-quality coffee such as premium Mocha coffee, the dried fruit skin remains attached to the beans after air-drying. Traditional stone grinding is still often used to remove the hard, dry husks, which results in irregular coffee bean shapes and frequently damages the beans.

Although Yemeni coffee is of high quality, smooth and aromatic, it has its shortcomings—quality cannot be consistently guaranteed, and the grading of its coffee beans is also uncertain. Traditionally, Yemen's best coffee beans come from Mattari, followed by Sharki, and then Sanani. These producing regions all use natural processing, so the coffee beans carry wild flavors. Overall, Yemeni coffee has a unique character—wild, complex, and stimulating—especially the captivating wine-like acidity and deep dark chocolate flavor that many people love. These coffee beans have low caffeine content and are exported from December to April of the following year.

A problem that has existed in the past is that coffee produced in the north is 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 Mocha Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

Yemen Mocha coffee beans roasted by FrontStreet Coffee offer full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they offer extremely high value-for-money, with each 227-gram package priced at only around 85 yuan. Calculating at 15 grams of coffee beans per cup, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, with each cup costing only about 6 yuan. Compared to café prices that often reach tens of yuan per cup, this is truly a conscientious recommendation.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small storefront 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