Yemen Mocha Mattari is one of the most storied coffees in the world, grown in what is arguably the oldest commercial coffee region on earth. Understanding this coffee means understanding where the entire coffee trade began.

Yemen Mocha Mattari

Coffee Details

Country: Yemen

Region: Mattari

Altitude: 1,300~1,900m

Varietal: Typica, Bourbon

Process: Natural / Sundried

01 | Region Introduction

The History of Yemen Coffee

Yemen, famed since antiquity for its frankincense and spice trade, is the first region in the world to cultivate coffee on a commercial scale. According to historical records, it is also the land where Noah is said to have built his ark in biblical times. Legend has it that the Queen of Sheba led a great caravan bearing gold and spices to Jerusalem to meet King Solomon - a meeting that, in Ethiopian tradition, produced a son who would become the first king of Ethiopia.

Perhaps because of this ancient history, the people of this land carry a fierce sense of pride and independence. Yemen has preserved a way of life stretching back thousands of years, and in many areas central government authority simply does not reach. Across the Red Sea, Ethiopia also exported coffee through the port of Mocha, which is why Ethiopian sun-dried coffees are often labeled "Mocha" as well (think of Ethiopian Harar Mokka). Yemeni Mocha was the true pioneer of the world coffee trade, and because these beans were marketed as "Arabia Coffee," we inherited the very term "Arabica" that we use today.

It is said that in the 17th century, Europeans first imported coffee on a large scale through the greatest coffee port of the era - the Port of Mocha. Today the port has lost its former glory and survives mainly as a historic site of white sandy beaches, yet it still "travels the world" in the name of coffee.

Although Ethiopia was the first country to discover coffee, Yemen was the first to produce it as a large-scale commercial crop. In the early 17th century, the first shipments of Yemeni coffee reached Europe via the small ancient port of Mocha and astonished European drinkers. Because every exported sack had to be stamped "MOCHA" to certify it had been shipped through that port, Europeans came to call the delicious coffee from Mocha Port "Mocha coffee" - which is why "Mocha" became a byword for coffee itself in the early days of the trade.

Mokhtar Alkhanshali

Credited to the discoveries of Islamic scholars, Yemeni coffee began perfuming the world from the 16th century onward, and for the next 150 years Yemen was the sole supplier of coffee worldwide. As cultivation spread across the globe, however, Yemeni coffee could not escape the so-called "development curve." Today, as Yemeni coffee climbs back to the summit of specialty coffee, one name must be mentioned: Mokhtar Alkhanshali.

A Yemeni-American, his change of perspective on coffee began with a single cup of single-origin pour-over. From that moment he threw himself into the industry - studying coffee professionally, traveling to Yemen's major growing regions, developing a "Mokhtar Model" of cultivation and management suited to Yemeni conditions, and relentlessly pursuing near-perfect flavor standards.

Just as he believed he could finally share this rare flavor with the world, Yemen's civil war broke out. The country was engulfed in conflict and all transport routes were cut. Determined not to let this flavor be destroyed, Mokhtar endured extraordinary hardships and eventually carried the beans across the ocean to the United States - where one of his coffees scored 97 points and ranked first on Coffee Review's annual top 30 list!

02 | Processing Method

Ancient Natural Processing

Yemen is the classic home of ancient natural processing and the world's only coffee-producing country that relies entirely on it. The traditional, non-washed method has remained essentially unchanged since the 17th century, when Europeans first fell for Mocha's wild flavors. Much of this is dictated by Yemen's extremely arid climate. Coffee is grown mainly in the central highlands, where annual rainfall is a mere 400-750mm - far below the 1,500-2,000mm that Arabica ideally requires.

Yemeni coffee grows on steep terrain with scarce rain, thin soil, and at times insufficient sunlight - harsh, unforgiving conditions that should be unfavorable for coffee. Yet these very conditions have created the irreplaceable Yemen Mocha. The main producing regions are Sanani, Mattari, and Ismaili.

The Mattari region lies in the highlands west of the capital, at an altitude of 2,000-2,400 meters - the highest coffee-growing zone in Yemen. Its remoteness and poor transport links mean farmers often wait several days after harvest before they can move their beans out.

Because water is so scarce, farmers have never been able to adopt washed processing. The wild aromatic character of these coffees even surpasses that of Harar, making Yemen the ultimate destination for anyone seeking coffee's most ancient flavors.

The central highlands are a landscape of rolling, rugged mountains. Smallholders farm in fragmented plots - a few trees on a steep slope here, dozens on a terrace or cliffside there - each with its own soil and microclimate, and each producing a distinct aromatic profile.

Yemeni farmers' natural method is rougher than Ethiopia's: they dry the beans directly on their rooftops! This contrasts with the refined naturals of Yirgacheffe or Sidamo, where red cherries are carefully spread on raised African beds. It is a major reason Yemeni flavors are so distinctly wild.

Under Yemen's ancient natural process, fully ripe cherries are picked by hand and the freshly harvested fruit is laid out straight away in dedicated drying fields or on the family's compacted earthen courtyard to sun-dry. During drying, wooden rakes are used to turn the beans so they dry evenly. After roughly twenty days, once the coffee is completely dry, the dried pulp and skin are milled off to extract the beans.

The result is a coffee of rich, complex, bold, and mellow flavors with pronounced fermentation notes and lower acidity. On top of that, Yemeni coffee carries an element of unpredictability - the timing of seasonal rains - that makes it endlessly elusive. Calling it the world's most singular coffee is no exaggeration.

Refined Natural Processing

Mokhtar Alkhanshali has also elevated these beans with a more refined natural process, and the coffees of Yemen's Mocha region speak for themselves in the cup.

03 | Green Bean Analysis

Among Mocha grades, Sanani is regarded as the better-quality coffee of Yemen.

Coffee from the Mattari region is characterized by an "unattractive" appearance: uneven sizes and considerable color variation, a jumble of small pea-shaped beans and hollow, defective ones.

Because the beans are so small, some traders call it "small Mocha." Mocha is a flat bean, not a round one - small, but intensely fragrant and rich.

04 | Roasting Analysis

Yemen Mocha is a green bean with relatively low moisture content. Given the uneven bean sizes and low moisture, the drop temperature should not be set too high. Pre-heat for 30 seconds, open the air damper to 3 until the beans turn pale green or white, then open it to 4, and after first crack, open to 5 (maximum).

FrontStreet Coffee recommends logging your data before roasting: bean moisture content, density, origin, processing method, room temperature, humidity, and so on, then planning your roast curve in advance. Record the relevant chemical and physical changes during the roast as well - doing so will help you understand your results better and steadily refine your curve.

Roasting Machine: Yangjia 800N, 550g green bean charge

Roasting Curve:

Preheat the drum to 170°C with the air damper at 3. After 1 minute, reduce heat to 140°C, damper unchanged. At 5'00", the temperature reads 147.2°C, the bean surface turns yellow, the grassy smell has fully disappeared, and dehydration is complete. Reduce heat to 110°C and open the damper to 4.

At 8'00", ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface and the toast-like smell clearly shifts into coffee aroma - the prelude to first crack. Listen carefully from here. At 8'23", first crack begins; reduce heat to 60°C and open the damper fully (make this adjustment carefully - do not cut the heat so low that the cracking stops). Drop the beans at 197.9°C.

Cupping Report:

Medium Roast, City (Caramel Aroma): Before grinding, the beans give off a peanut aroma; after grinding, a caramel fragrance. In the cup the layers are complex, with a delicate grape-like acidity appearing as the cup evolves. The spice-laced aftertaste is long, the mouthfeel sweet and round, with a Middle Eastern milk-tea impression that lingers. The cup bottom shows malt sweetness. Medium-roasted Yemen Mocha continues to evolve, so we recommend brewing it 7-14 days after roasting, when the complex wild fermentation flavors are at their best.

04 | Brewing Analysis

The condition of the coffee bed in pour-over brewing cannot be ignored - this deserves real emphasis. The coffee bed plays a subtle but vital role: it provides resistance, allowing hot water to remain in the dripper long enough to extract enough flavor.

A medium-roast coffee bed must also have a certain structural strength to perform this "blocking" function. To keep the bed from collapsing, you need to master water column intensity and pouring position, together with a steady circular pouring technique - only then do you have a complete pouring method.

Brewing Parameters:

1. Filter: V60

2. Water temperature: 88°C

3. Grind size: Fuji Royal grinder setting 4

4. Roast level: Medium

5. Bloom time: 25 seconds

Flavor: Balanced, chocolate, persistent caramel sweetness in the finish

FrontStreet Coffee suggests this technique: 15g of coffee on a Fuji Royal "ghost tooth" grinder at setting 4, a V60 dripper, and 88-89°C water. Pour 30g of water for a 25-second bloom, then pour up to 104g and stop. Once the water level in the bed has dropped halfway, resume pouring slowly until you reach 220g, avoiding the last 5g. Use a 1:15 water-to-coffee ratio, with total extraction time around 2:00 (counted from the end of the bloom pour).

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If the wild, ancient character of Yemeni natural coffee appeals to you, FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopian naturals offer a cleaner, more refined take on the same sun-dried tradition. The FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Project natural delivers peach, cocoa, honey, and lemon with a fruit-forward sweetness, while the FrontStreet Huakui natural from Hambella in Guji, Sidamo - dried for 21 days on raised beds - shows gentle fermented wine notes, florals, citrus, and mango with a thick body and long finish. Both showcase just how expressive the natural process can be.