What Are Classic Yemeni Coffee Beans? How Should You Drink Yemeni Coffee? Is Yemeni Mocha Coffee Delicious?

Yemen: The Ancient Coffee Producer

Although the specialty coffee wave represents a renaissance of craft over machinery, the balance of supply and demand is still governed by the market. Downstream businesses express different coffee styles through various brewing methods, while upstream farmers develop distinctive processing techniques in response to market trends. Yet one country has continued to produce coffee using the most primitive methods since the sixth century: Yemen.

Historical Significance

Yemen, located in Western Asia, lies just a step away from the African continent. Without the promotion of coffee 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 Yemen was under Ethiopian rule, and it was named "Qahwa," meaning "red wine" in Arabic. Later, the Ottoman Empire invaded in 1536 and took control of the coffee trade. To protect export revenues, authorities strictly prohibited the export of raw beans, requiring seeds to be boiled in hot water before leaving the country.

In 1708, de la Roque and three ships from the French East India Company arrived at Mocha port in Yemen, becoming the first French to sail around the southern tip of Africa into the Red Sea. They took real risks and spent a year traveling such a distance just to buy coffee directly.

For a long time, people have associated coffee with Latin America, but for roughly 300 years, half the time since coffee became a commodity, Arabs monopolized the trade in Arabica coffee. What particularly displeased the French was that most coffee trade intermediaries were Arabs, Egyptians, and Indians. This could not last, however. Europeans would eventually sweep through the coffee trade, turning Yemen's monopoly history into a faint and distorted memory, and de la Roque was one of the important drivers of that shift.

One of the World's Driest Countries

Yemen is one of the world's driest countries. Economically, the country currently relies on oil exports for three-quarters of its income, but the World Bank predicts its reserves will be depleted around 2017. A country once self-sufficient through agriculture now imports 80% of its agricultural products. Among the reasons are population growth and water shortages caused by locals' extensive cultivation of "Qat" (also known as khat or Arabian tea), a crop with a history as long as coffee's.

Qat is a common social drug among Arabian Peninsula residents. Yemenis like to set aside rooms at home for entertaining guests, chewing qat while chatting with friends. It contains the stimulant cathinone, with effects similar to mild amphetamines, providing alertness and mental clarity, though when the effects wear off users experience depression. Although the World Health Organization (WHO) has not classified it as a drug, many Western countries have already banned its import.

Water Crisis and Agricultural Shift

On the other hand, Yemen has long been troubled by drought. Its major cities rely on underground water sources, with agriculture accounting for 90% of water consumption. Growing Qat alone consumes significant water, and authorities predict that underground water reserves in the capital Sana'a will be depleted by 2017. Most Yemeni cities are built on mountains, with residents depending on water from government or private wells. The country has between 40,000 and 70,000 wells, some reaching 600 meters underground. Pumping water uphill is also costly, with the government spending up to $7 billion annually on drilling and pumping. In recent years local authorities therefore decided to ban qat cultivation, which both wastes water and cannot satisfy hunger, and replace it with other crops. Coinciding with the rise of specialty coffee, the Yemeni government is now encouraging farmers to switch to coffee, which consumes half as much water as qat.

Traditional Production Methods

Authentic Yemeni coffee is quite uncommon. After the fruit ripens on the trees, farmers harvest it by hand and dry it on the roofs of stone houses built along mountainsides. Removing the pulp and husks relies entirely on simple stone grinding equipment. Due to poor transportation, the coffee typically changes hands several times, mixing beans of uneven size and varying age. Combined with numerous defects and improper processing, Yemeni coffee struggles to meet specialty grade standards under modern cupping protocols. High-quality Yemeni coffee, however, offers unique flavors: complex Middle Eastern spices, cured meat, ripe fruits, wine notes, and cocoa, with a rich body and a strong aftertaste. Like durian and stinky tofu, it divides people into those who love it and those who hate it.

Distinctive Flavors of Yemeni Coffee

In terms of growing regions, Mattari west of the capital is known for its heavy body and cocoa notes. Harazi offers higher acidity and a lighter body. Other regions include Dhamari (also known as Anisi), Ibb, and Sana'a, the latter named after the capital. Sana'a, however, is not actually a growing region but a brand used by intermediaries who mix fruit collected from neighboring villages for export, similar to how Yemeni coffee historically used the port name Mocha.

FrontStreet Coffee's Yemen Mocha is just like that: those who like it love it very much, while those who dislike it hate it intensely.

Brewing Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee suggests the following brewing parameters for Yemen Mocha:

V60 / 1:15 / 89°C / Time: 1 minute 50 seconds

Flavor profile: Spices, chocolate, grapes

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Yemen sits at the crossroads of coffee history, but Ethiopia is its birthplace, and that makes Ethiopian heirloom coffee a natural companion to a Yemeni cup. If you want to taste the clear, elegant side of that heritage first, FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe is the entry point: fresh jasmine florals and bright citrus acidity, the lemon-tea clarity that made Yirgacheffe a byword for Ethiopian specialty coffee. Yirgacheffe town sits at roughly 1,700-2,100 meters in southern Ethiopia, with coffee grown above 1,800 meters, among the highest coffee regions in the world.

For a coffee that leans toward the fruit and spice that Yemeni beans are known for, FrontStreet Coffee's Gudingding Cooperative is an excellent next step. A washed coffee from around 300 member farmers in the Worka area, it was spun off as an independent single-origin site in 2012 as demand for traceability grew. Removing the pulp before drying makes the bean's own aroma clearer, so it shows citrus and lemon notes with elegant white florals and a bright, delicate body. And if you enjoy natural processing, FrontStreet Coffee's natural Red Cherry keeps the tropical fruit of sun-dried Ethiopian coffee with citrus acidity, berry juice, honey sweetness, and a creamy mouthfeel.