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Yemen Mocha Mattari

01 | Region Introduction

* The History of Yemen *

Yemen, famous for its frankincense and spice trade, is the world's earliest origin of Mocha coffee cultivation.

Tracing back in history, it is also the place where, according to the Bible, Noah built the ark.

According to legend, 3,000 years ago the legendary Queen of Sheba brought gold, spices, and a large delegation to Jerusalem to seek out King Solomon, and bore a son. (Rumor has it that this son became the first king of Ethiopia.)

Be that as it may, perhaps for such historical reasons, the people of this land are said to retain a strong sense of pride and extreme independence to this day.

Yemen, which preserves a way of life unchanged for thousands of years, has many places beyond the central government's reach. Ethiopia, just across the sea, also once used the port of Mocha to export its coffee, which is why Ethiopian sun-dried coffee is often called Mocha (as in Ethiopia Harar Mokka). Yemen Mocha is the originator of the world coffee trade. Yemen made an indelible contribution to spreading delicious coffee around the globe, and its coffee became known as "Arabian coffee" - the origin of the later term "arabica."

It is said that in the 17th century, Europeans first imported coffee, and spread it to the world, through the world's largest coffee port - the Port of Mocha.

Compared with its former glory, today's Port of Mocha has lost its prosperity and become a historical port of white sandy beaches.

Even so, it still "travels far and wide" in the name of coffee.

Although Ethiopia was the first country in the world to discover coffee, Yemen was the first to produce it as a crop on a large scale. In the early 17th century, the first batch of Yemeni coffee was exported to Europe via the small ancient port of Mocha, astonishing the Europeans. Because every exported coffee bag had to be stamped with the MOCHA mark to prove it had shipped from Mocha Port, Europeans called the delicious coffee from Mocha "Mocha coffee" - which is why Mocha became an early synonym for coffee itself.

Yemeni coffee grows on steep terrain with little rainfall, poor soil, and insufficient sunlight. These uniquely difficult conditions - so unfavorable to coffee - have nurtured the irreplaceable Yemen Mocha in the coffee world. The main producing regions are Sanani, Mattari, and Ismaili.

The Mattari region lies in the highlands west of the capital, at 2000-2400 meters. It is the highest-altitude coffee region in Yemen, but also the most remote, with inconvenient transportation; farmers often have to wait a while after harvesting before they can get their coffee out.

02 | Processing Method

The Ancient Natural Sun-Drying Method

Yemen is the classic of ancient sun-dried flavors and the world's only country producing entirely sun-dried coffee. The traditional processing method - without a single drop of water - has remained unchanged since the 17th century, when Europeans first fell for Mocha's wild flavors. This is tied to Yemen's extremely dry climate: coffee is grown mainly in the central highlands, where average annual rainfall is only 400-750 millimeters, far below the 1,500-2,000 millimeters optimal for arabica.

Because water is so scarce, farmers have never been able to adopt more advanced washed methods. With a wild flavor that surpasses even Harar, Yemen is the best place to experience ancient coffee flavors.

Yemen's central highlands roll with mountains and rugged terrain. Small farmers mostly practice fragmented planting - a few trees on steep slopes, dozens on terraces or cliffs - each plot with its own soil and microclimate, and therefore its own aromatic components.

Yemeni farmers' sun-drying is rougher than Ethiopia's. The cherries are not picked when they turn red but are left to dry naturally on the branches until they become purplish-black and fall to the ground, when they are collected. This differs from the refined sun-drying of Yirgacheffe or Sidamo, where red cherries are picked and spread on raised African beds. This is the main reason Yemen's wild flavor is so intense.

Yemen's natural method involves hand-harvesting the fully dried coffee and laying the fresh harvest directly on dedicated drying fields or the farmer's own compacted earthen courtyard for sun exposure. During drying - much like sun-drying rice - wooden rakes are used to turn the beans so each one dries evenly. After about twenty days, when drying is complete, the outer pulp and skin are removed to extract the beans. Yemeni coffee features rich, complex, wild, mellow flavors with strong fermentation notes and lower acidity. Add the unpredictable factor of seasonal rains, and it is no exaggeration to call Yemeni coffee the world's most special coffee.

03 | Green Bean Analysis

Mocha's grades are divided into Sanani, Mattari, and Ismaili.

Because Yemen's annual coffee production is low, only about 35% is Mocha Sanani and Mocha Mattari, which can be considered the better quality among Yemeni coffees.

Coffee from the Mattari region has an "unattractive" appearance: inconsistent sizes and considerable color differences, looking like a jumble of small pea-shaped beans and empty defective beans.

Green Bean Information:

Yemen Mocha Mattari

Country: Yemen

Region: Mattari

Altitude: 2,000~2,400m

Varietal: Typica, Bourbon

Process: Natural / sun-dried

Because the bean shape is very small, some people call it "Little Mocha." Mocha is a flat bean, not a round bean - small, but fragrant and rich.

04 | Roasting Analysis

Yemen Mocha is a green bean with relatively low moisture content. Considering the inconsistent bean sizes, the charge temperature for low-moisture beans should not be too high. Preheat for 30 seconds with the damper at 3; once the beans turn light green or white, open the damper to 4, and after first crack open it to 5 (maximum).

FrontStreet Coffee suggests keeping good records before roasting - bean moisture content, density, origin, processing method, ambient temperature and humidity in the roasting room - and planning your roasting curve. Record the chemical and physical changes during the roast as well; this helps you understand the final results and refine your curve.

Roaster: Yangjia 800N, 550g green beans loaded

Roasting Profile:

Preheat the roaster to 170°C, damper at 3; after 1 minute reduce heat to 140°C with the damper unchanged. Roast until 5'00", when the temperature reaches 147.2°C, the bean surface turns yellow, the grassy smell disappears completely, and drying is complete; reduce heat to 110°C and open the damper to 4.

At 8'00", wrinkles and dark spots appear on the bean surface and the toast smell clearly turns to coffee aroma - the prelude to first crack. Listen carefully for the sound. At 8'23" first crack begins; reduce heat to 60°C and open the damper fully (adjust heat very carefully - not so low that the cracking stops), and drop the beans at 197.9°C.

Cupping Report:

Medium Roast - City (caramel aroma): The beans have a peanut aroma before grinding and a caramel fragrance after grinding. When slurping, the layers are complex, with a slight grape acidity appearing toward the end of the sip. The spicy aftertaste is long, and the sweet, smooth mouthfeel has a Middle Eastern milk-tea quality that lingers. The cup bottom shows malt sweetness. Medium-roasted Yemen Mocha keeps evolving, so we recommend brewing 7-14 days after roasting, when the complex wild fermentation flavor is at its best.

04 | Brewing Analysis

The condition of the coffee bed in pour-over cannot be ignored - this must be emphasized! The bed plays a subtle role, one of which is providing resistance, letting hot water stay in the dripper long enough to extract sufficient flavor. For a medium roast, the bed also needs a certain structural strength to perform its "blocking" function. To keep the bed from weakening, you must master water column intensity, pouring position, and steady circular motion - together they make up a complete pouring technique.

Brewing Parameters:

1. Filter: V60

2. Water Temperature: 88°C

3. Grind Size: Fuji Mini R at 4

4. Roast Level: Medium roast

5. Bloom Time: 25 seconds

Flavor: Balanced, chocolate, and a persistent caramel sweetness in the aftertaste

FrontStreet Coffee's suggested method: 15g of coffee, Fuji Mini R at grind 4, V60 filter, 88-89°C water. First pour 30g of water and bloom for 25 seconds, pour to 104g and pause, wait until the bed's water level drops to half, then continue pouring slowly up to 220g, discarding the last 5g. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time about 2:00 (counted from the end of the bloom pour).

Related recommendations: Description of Yemeni coffee flavor and taste characteristics, Is Yemen Mocha coffee good to drink?

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If the wild, sun-dried character of Yemen Mocha speaks to you, Ethiopia - coffee's birthplace and home to countless heirloom varieties - offers the closest cousin experience, and FrontStreet Coffee's natural-process lineup is the place to start. Like Yemen, Ethiopia's naturals are dried whole in the sun, but with a refinement all their own: for FrontStreet Coffee's natural Huakui, from the Guji Hambella region, ripe cherries are dried on raised beds for 21 days, turned constantly for even drying and hand-sorted every three to five days to remove defective or moldy beans, then hulled and sorted one final time before export. Roasted light-medium, it delivers a faint fermented wine note, florals, citrus, and mango, with honeyed sweetness, cocoa, a touch of spice, a thick body, and a long finish - richer and more complex than a washed cup, much like Yemen Mocha.

For a cleaner take on the natural style, FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Project natural selects only intact, sound cherries, suns them for two weeks until their sugars and essence soak into the bean and moisture drops to 12%, then strips away the dried skin, mucilage, and pods and screens the beans by density and color, with workers hand-picking out any remaining defects. The result is a coffee of immaculate clarity with rich, charming fruit - peach, cocoa, honey, and lemon - proof that wild fermentation and cleanliness can coexist.

And for the ultimate taste of coffee's origins, FrontStreet Coffee's Kaffa Forest coffee comes from wild coffee trees growing at 1,400-2,100 meters under forest shade, nourished by virgin microclimates and red soil with abundant rainfall. Roasted medium-light, it opens with distinct white florals, shows bright lemon acidity with sweet orange and bergamot, and finishes with subtle melon, fruit, and nut notes - a green-tea-like cup that, together with Yemen Mocha, completes the ancient story of sun-dried coffee at its source.