What are the growing regions of Yemen Mocha? What are the characteristics of Yemen Mocha Mattari coffee? How to drink Yemen Mocha?

For coffee enthusiasts with some background, mentioning Yemeni coffee immediately brings "Mocha" to mind.

If Ethiopia is a versatile woman - complex fruity and floral notes - then Yemen is a brave man: chocolate flavors, tobacco notes and a heavy body, yet with a gentle sweet aftertaste.

Yemen has a long history of coffee cultivation. By the early 17th century, Yemeni coffee beans were being exported from the southwestern port of Mocha to Europe, and Europeans came to call beans shipped from Mocha port "Mocha coffee." Ethiopia, across the Red Sea from Yemen, later also used Mocha port to export its beans, which is why Ethiopian sun-dried coffee is often considered Mocha as well.

Yemen's cultivation methods remain much as they were 500 years ago, with almost all coffee grown on mountain slopes between 3,000 and 7,000 feet in altitude. With sparse rainfall, the trees must rely on their strong water-retention capacity to survive drought. These harsh growing conditions produce relatively small beans of quite high hardness. Yemen's varieties are also complex, with recognized small-bean varieties including Ismaili and ancient heirloom, as well as the Adeni and Mattari varieties.

Yemeni coffee belongs to the natural sun-dried process. After harvesting, the cherries are usually spread in courtyards or on rooftops for sun exposure; some are even allowed to dry directly on the tree before picking (a method called "floating").

Yemen's natural sun-drying involves hand-harvesting fully ripe coffee and placing it directly in dedicated drying fields or compacted earthen courtyards. During drying - much like rice drying in Taiwan - wooden rakes are used to turn the beans for even drying. After about twenty days, the outer pulp and skin are removed to extract the beans. Yemeni coffee is characterized by rich, complex, wild, mellow and strongly fermented flavors with lower acidity. It also carries an uncertain factor - the timing of the seasonal rains - that makes it unpredictable, so it is no exaggeration to call it the world's most singular coffee.

The dried cherries must then be ground and hulled. Yemen still preserves the ancient method of stone-mill hulling, with the mills powered by camels or donkeys.

Yemen has many coffee-producing regions, and Mattari from Bani Matar (Bany Mattar) province is the most famous and the highest quality among Yemen's exported coffees.

The early port of Mocha, which bore the weight of the coffee trade, has many name variants and spellings - Mocha, Mokka, Moca, Moka, Al-Mocha, Al-Makha and so on. The port was later abandoned due to silting, and exports now go through Aden port in the east and Hodeida port in the north.

FrontStreet Coffee's Yemen Mocha Mattari

FrontStreet Coffee's Yemen Mocha Mattari, shaped perhaps by Yemen's cultivation methods and traditional sun-drying, carries a somewhat ancient feeling: wild, full of untamed and unrestrained spirit, with rich chocolate flavor on entry that is simply intoxicating. As the cup cools slightly, grape sweetness and acidity fill the entire palate.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Parameters:

V60 / 89°C / 1:15 ratio / time: 2 minutes

Flavor Notes:

Dark chocolate, grape, spices.

Since people began drinking coffee, Mocha has been recognized as exceptional coffee with a distinctive acidity. Some find Mocha's special acidity assertive - largely because after a long day of work the palate grows dull to delicate flavors. The coffee itself is intensely aromatic and rich. Yemeni Mocha is best represented by Mattari from the Bani Matar region: a sweet, smooth mouthfeel with unique aromatics, slight acidity and a strong aftertaste. Mocha blends well with Milds category coffees, especially Ethiopian coffee, Indonesia's Java coffee and Sumatran coffee. Locals like to mix Mocha with Ethiopian coffee to make Turkish coffee. It is an ideal after-dinner coffee - and the finest among all Mochas.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

The article itself points the way: Mocha marries beautifully with Ethiopian coffee, and FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopian beans make ideal companions or stand-alone alternatives. The FrontStreet Washed Yirgacheffe offers the clean counterpoint - white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity and a light, tea-like body - while the FrontStreet Guodingding Cooperative from the Worka region, independent since 2012 with about 300 member farmers, shows citrus, lemon and elegant white florals after traditional washed processing and a medium-light roast.

If you love the wild, sun-dried character of this Mattari, go for the FrontStreet Sun-Dried Hua Kui from Hambella in Guji: whole cherries dried for 21 days on raised beds and hand-sorted every three to five days produce a medium-light roast of light fermented winey aroma, florals, citrus and mango, with honey sweetness, cocoa and a thick, lasting body. And for a fully natural cup with pristine cleanliness, the FrontStreet Sun-Dried Red Cherry - dried for two weeks until moisture falls to 12%, then hulled, density-graded and hand-sorted - yields peach, cocoa, honey and lemon in a spotless finish, proof that wild character and refinement can share the same cup.