Where Do Yemen Mocha Coffee Beans Come From? Which Estate Produces Yemen Mocha Beans?

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Introduction to Yemen Mocha Coffee Bean Origin

Yemen produces Peaberry beans: These coffee beans are smaller and rounder than most coffee beans, resembling peas and sometimes called Mocha coffee beans. The appearance of Mocha coffee beans is similar to Ethiopian Harrar coffee beans - small in size with high acidity, mixed with a peculiar and indescribable spicy flavor. When tasted carefully, you can also detect a hint of chocolate flavor, making the addition of chocolate to coffee a natural development process.

In Yemen, coffee growers plant poplar trees to provide the necessary shade for coffee trees. As in the past, these trees are planted on steep terraces to maximize the use of limited rainfall and land resources. Besides Typica and Bourbon coffee trees, more than ten different coffee tree species native to Ethiopia are also cultivated in Yemen. Authentic "Mocha coffee beans" are produced only in the Republic of Yemen on the southwestern Arabian Peninsula, growing on steep mountain slopes at altitudes of 3,000 to 8,000 feet, making it one of the world's oldest coffees.

Yemen Mocha Varieties

Mokha Mattari

A prestigious coffee market name from the Mattari region in the Bani Mattar province west of Yemen's capital Sana'a. This is high-altitude coffee, typically featuring excellent red wine aroma, dried fruit flavors, rich body, and often displays bittersweet chocolate notes when dark roasted. High-quality Mattari beans are small, with raw beans emitting a fragrant sweet wine aroma and moderate fermented fruit flavors. It always emerges as a winner due to its more distinct Yemeni style.

Mokha San'ani

A broad market name for coffee from several growing areas west of Yemen's capital Sana'a. It's a blend from tens of thousands of small farms on the slopes near the capital San'a. The growing altitude is slightly lower than Mattari, generally with a lighter body and lower acidity than Mattari, but with good fruit aromas and often better fermented fruit and wild flavors than Mattari. Based on my experience, San'ani quality has varied greatly in recent years, with occasionally poor quality exhibiting flat flavors, earthy tastes, and excessive fermentation. Careful cupping selection is essential work for coffee merchants - absolutely no cutting corners allowed.

Mokha Ismaili

One of the traditional ancient varieties, a market name for famous coffee from central Yemen, also described as a botanical classification of traditional Yemeni coffee with high beverage quality. Grown at very high altitudes above 6,500 feet, characterized by more rounded beans that are smaller than Mattari, with rich body and high complexity. Generally, it often outperforms Mattari. This is the least produced and most expensive Yemeni Mocha (Yemeni Mocha is already not cheap). High-quality Mokha Ismaili is produced in the Hirazi region (though not as famous as Bani Matar, it's the region with the best local reputation in Yemen) on high mountain slopes, with the highest altitude in Hirazi reaching 8,000 feet!

Mokha Rimi

Produced in the Djebel Remi (also known as Raimi, Rayma) region, quality similar to San'ani. Mokha Rimi typically has slightly heavier fermentation notes, occasionally exhibiting surprisingly rich raisin sweetness. When properly roasted, the coffee beans smell like opening a bottle of rich fruit jam.

Mokha Yafeh

Produced in Yafeh (also known as Yaffe) province in southern Yemen, belonging to uncommon Yemeni Mocha varieties. It's Yemen's only "southern flavor" with limited production, mostly exported to neighboring United Arab Emirates, rarely seen in the international specialty coffee market.

Arabian Mocha

A single-origin coffee from the mountains of Yemen on the southwestern Arabian Peninsula bordering the Red Sea. Among the world's best cultivated coffees, famous for its high viscosity and special rich, wine-like acidity.

Yemen Mocha achieves different schools based on different growing regions, just like the chocolate and acidity of MATTARI Mocha, and the wildness and fragrance of SANANI Mocha.

Characteristics of Yemen Coffee

Although Yemen coffee is high-quality, smooth and aromatic, it has its shortcomings - quality cannot be consistently guaranteed, and its coffee bean grading system is also uncertain. Traditionally, Yemen's best coffee beans come from Mattari, followed by Sharki, and then Sanani. These coffee beans have low caffeine content. Dark-roasted Yemeni coffee often exhibits chocolate-like bittersweet notes, influencing today's chocolate-flavored specialty coffees that are also labeled as "Mocha." Yemeni coffee possesses the world's most unique, rich, and fascinating complex aromas: red wine fragrance, wildness, dried fruit, blueberry, grape, cinnamon, tobacco, sweet spices, woody notes, and even chocolate. You can see various adjectives used to describe Yemeni Mocha. Just as "Mocha" has many meanings, its English spelling also varies: Moka, Moca, and Mocca are all common spellings. On Yemeni coffee bags and documents, local spellings number as many as four: "Mokha," "Makha," "Morkha," and "Mukha" - all representing the same meaning.

Yemeni Mocha has complex and changing flavors, presenting a major challenge for coffee roasters on how to bring out the best flavors of Yemeni Mocha! Medium-light roasting reveals sweet fruit aromas, gentle, warm sun-dried fermentation notes; dark roasting reveals rich red wine fragrance and bittersweet chocolate aftertaste.

Flavor: Exotic flavor, slightly wine-like, spicy and stimulating, unique and extraordinary - a must-try.

Recommended Roasting Method: Medium roast

Rating: ★★★ - Excellent

Yemen Coffee Market

Yemen's coffee is exported from December to April of the following year. A long-standing problem has been that coffee produced in the north is adulterated with inferior quality before being shipped from the southern port of Aden. Only coffee shipped from the port of Hodeida can be confirmed as genuinely produced in the north. Most of Yemen's coffee grows under natural conditions, mainly due to growers' lack of funds.

Yemen Mocha Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

Yemeni Mocha coffee beans roasted by FrontStreet Coffee offer full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they offer excellent value - each 227-gram package costs only about 85 yuan. Calculating at 15 grams of coffee beans per cup, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, with each cup costing only about 6 yuan. Compared to coffee shops selling cups for tens 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. They also provide online store services.

https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Related Recommendations: What is Mocha coffee? Yemeni Mocha - Mattari sun-dried beans are Yemen's true Mocha coffee beans

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473