The World's Oldest Coffee - Yemen Mocha Coffee Recommendations & Yemen Moka Mattari Coffee Bean Prices

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

The Royal Status of Mocha Coffee

It is said that in the world of coffee, Blue Mountain can be called the king, while Mocha can be called the queen. Mocha coffee possesses the world's most unique, richest, and most fascinating complex aromas: red wine fragrance, wildness, blueberry, grape, cinnamon, tobacco, sweet spices, woody notes, and even chocolate.

Mocha coffee has a special taste with ever-changing layers, much like a woman's mood. Savored slowly, the sensations you experience from beginning to end never repeat - they keep shifting, more like tasting a glass of red wine than a cup of coffee. Some have said that if Mexican coffee can be compared to dry white wine, then Yemen Mocha is Bordeaux.

Historical Recognition

The historian Ukers wrote in his most authoritative work, "All About Coffee": "For many years, Yemen Mocha coffee was considered the best coffee people could obtain worldwide. It has a unique taste, rich fragrance, and acidity, and at the same time, a distinctive spiciness."

The flavor characteristics of Yemen Mocha are quite distinct - it has stronger acidity and obvious chocolate notes. The stronger the coffee, the more easily the chocolate flavor can be detected. Naturally, adding hot chocolate to coffee to create flavored mocha coffee lets people better appreciate Mocha's unique taste.

Living Fossil of Coffee

Yemen was the first country in the world to produce coffee as a crop on a large scale. To this day, Yemeni coffee farmers still use the same methods to produce coffee as they did 500 years ago. Some farmers still use animals such as camels and donkeys as power sources for stone mills. Compared with Central and South American countries that use advanced mechanical equipment to process coffee beans in large quantities, or even Kenya with its short coffee history, Yemen Mocha is the only living fossil in the coffee world.

So the Yemen Mocha coffee you drink today is basically not much different from the "Arabian coffee" that European noble merchants enjoyed hundreds of years ago in Europe's oldest cafes in St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy.

Unique Characteristics

Mocha, whether for coffee industry insiders or outsiders, is a familiar term. This coffee possesses the original wild aroma of Ethiopian coffee as well as the tempting fragrance of dark chocolate.

Yemen's coffee was also introduced from the Ethiopian highlands. To this day, the region still retains the same native varieties as Ethiopia. The coffee here grows in arid mountainous regions without any chemical fertilizers or pesticides, and some farmers even let the coffee cherries dry on the tree before picking.

Premium Grades and Challenges

Among the Yemen Mocha coffees produced in Yemen, Mocha Mattari No. 9, cultivated in the Mattari region, is the highest grade. Its unique acidity and body have earned it the title "Coffee Lady."

Limited by the need for careful cultivation and insufficient fertilization, its production volume is very low. Additionally, because stone mortars are used for hulling, the proportion of broken beans mixed in is high. The beans are small and uneven in size. The inconsistency is not just in size - the drying state of the beans is also uneven. What does uneven drying mean? Just imagine how raw beans look when mixed with old beans. So it is already very difficult to drink an authentic cup of Yemen Mocha in an ordinary cafe.

Popularity and Roasting

The number of Mocha coffee enthusiasts far exceeds those of other coffee varieties, making it the most popular single-origin coffee. A good cup of Mocha can completely satisfy our desired mouthfeel, aroma, and richness, and of course, the long-lasting aftertaste and sweet return.

When roasting, it is best to use a high roast - city roast is optimal. Because its acidity is quite pronounced, a light roast can easily develop harsh acidity and even strong sourness.

The high price of Mocha makes many coffee lovers and roasters hesitate. Since it is considered a premium product, the step of hand-selecting the coffee in cafes cannot be omitted. This is where you can see the roasting expertise of various artisanal coffee shops.

Yemen Mocha Coffee Brand Recommendations

Yemen Mocha coffee beans roasted by FrontStreet Coffee offer full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they offer excellent value - a 227-gram package is priced at only 85 yuan. At 15 grams per cup, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, with each cup costing less than 6 yuan. Compared with cafes selling cups for dozens of yuan, this is truly a conscientious recommendation.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou 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

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Yemen Mocha and Jamaica Blue Mountain share a place among the classics, and if the queen of coffee has you curious about the old-world style, FrontStreet Coffee suggests trying the king alongside it. FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1, the highest grade of Jamaican Blue Mountain, comes from the historic Clifton estate. Clifton has grown and processed coffee since around 1750, and its growing and processing site sits at an average of 4,300 feet (1,310.64 meters), where gentle afternoon cloud, forest shade, ample sunshine, and mineral-rich soil give the trees ideal conditions and slow the ripening of the cherries.

Roasted medium-dark, this Blue Mountain keeps the variety's hallmark balance between acidity, sweetness, and bitterness, with no sharpness and only a moderate, refined acidity. In the cup you find cream, caramel, chocolate, nuts, honey, and a faint fruit overtone - smooth and rounded on entry, rich in sweetness through the middle, with a clean, long finish. For anyone who loves a classic, balanced coffee, it is about as easy to love as a single origin gets.

The genuine article is also easy to verify: authentic Blue Mountain ships in wooden barrels in 15, 45, and 70-kilogram sizes, each printed with the lot's green-bean details, and comes with the estate's certification and proof of origin. Much like Yemen Mocha, it is a coffee worth seeking out through a seller who can show you where it came from.