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

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Yemen: The Ancient Coffee Producer

Although the specialty coffee wave represents a renaissance of "craft over machinery," the balance of supply and demand remains 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. However, there exists one country that 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 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 was named "Qahwa," meaning "red wine" in Arabic. Later, the Ottoman Empire invaded in 1536, controlling 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 risks and spent a year traveling such a great distance just to purchase coffee directly.

For a long time, people have associated coffee with Latin America, but for approximately 300 years (half the time since coffee became a commodity), Arabs monopolized the trade of Arabica coffee. What particularly displeased the French was that most coffee trade intermediaries were Arabs, Egyptians, and Indians. However, this situation could not last long. Europeans would eventually sweep through the coffee trade, making Yemen's monopoly history a faint and distorted memory, with de la Roque being one of the important drivers of this wave.

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. This country, once self-sufficient through agriculture, now imports 80% of its agricultural products. Reasons include 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.

Qat is a common social drug among Arabian Peninsula residents. Yemenis like to dedicate rooms in their homes 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. However, 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 problems. Its major cities rely on underground water sources, with agriculture accounting for 90% of water consumption. Growing Qat alone consumes significant water resources, 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 to 70,000 wells, some reaching 600 meters underground. Additionally, pumping water uphill is costly, with the government spending up to $7 billion annually on drilling and pumping. Therefore, in recent years, local authorities have decided to ban qat cultivation, which both wastes water and cannot satisfy hunger, replacing it with other crops. Coinciding with the rise of the specialty coffee trend, 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 fruits ripen on the trees, farmers harvest them by hand and dry them on the roofs of stone houses built along mountainsides. The processes of removing pulp and husks rely entirely on simple stone grinding equipment. Due to poor transportation, coffee typically changes hands several times, mixing beans of uneven sizes and varying ages. Combined with numerous defects and improper processing, Yemeni coffee struggles to meet specialty grade standards according to modern cupping protocols. However, high-quality Yemeni coffee offers unique flavors: complex Middle Eastern spices, cured meat, ripe fruits, wine notes, and cocoa, with a rich body and strong aftertaste. Like durian and stinky tofu, it divides opinions between 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, named after the capital. However, Sana'a is not actually a growing region but a brand used by intermediaries who mix fruits 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

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