Is the Mocha Coffee You Regularly Drink Yemeni Mocha? Differences Between Mocha and Yemeni Mocha

The Origins of Coffee

Coffee originated in Ethiopia, on the East African plateau. For nearly 2,000 years the region has produced high-quality Arabica processed by traditional sun-drying, and those beans took their name from the ancient city of Harar. About 1,500 years ago coffee trees were carried across the Red Sea into Yemen, and from there the drink began its journey around the world. Yemeni beans were shipped out through the port of Mocha (now silted up and abandoned), reaching Europe mainly via Turkey. That is why Yemeni coffee came to be named after its export port, and why we still speak of "Mocha beans." But what exactly separates Mocha beans, Mocha coffee, and the Mocha pot?

Mocha Beans

Mocha beans are grown in Ethiopia and are known for their small size and intense aroma. They show strong acidity and a mellow body with subtle winey notes, a spicy quality, and moderate sweetness. This is a highly regarded premium coffee, usually drunk as a single origin. Yemen currently produces the finest Mocha, with Ethiopian Mocha close behind. Mocha coffee has a smooth texture, medium-to-strong acidity, excellent sweetness, and distinctive chocolate notes; elegant and refined, it is one of the most singular pure coffees there is.

Mocha (Mocca, sometimes called "small Mocha" for its very small bean): the small Mocha varieties of Central and South America have short trees, small beans, and relatively low yields. Small Mocha beans typically measure around 10-11 mesh, meaning a bean width of 0.39 cm to 0.43 cm, considerably smaller than the 0.7 cm width of a typical 18-mesh Central American bean. Note that small Mocha beans have a flat side, which tells you one fruit contains two beans. Small Mocha does also produce peaberries, but at only 2%, far below the usual 5-10% rate among Arabica varieties.

Mocha Pot

Because Yemen remained the world's leading coffee exporter through the pre-colonial period, "Mocha" served as a synonym for Yemeni beans for a very long time. What we call the Mocha pot today is really just a type of coffee maker.

The Mocha pot consists of an upper chamber, a filter basket, and a lower chamber, with the filter sitting between the two chambers. Water goes into the lower chamber and ground coffee into the filter basket. When the lower chamber is heated, steam builds roughly one atmosphere of pressure, forcing hot water up through the grounds and the central tube and into the upper chamber as brewed coffee.

Brewing Technique

Set the assembled Mocha pot on the heat source. The key to filling the basket is to fill it level rather than tamping the grounds. Add the coffee in batches while tapping the edge of the basket so it settles evenly, with no gaps. To make things easier to watch, it helps to brew with the upper lid open.

Before long, coffee will begin to rise from the central column into the upper chamber.

As extraction continues, the level in the upper chamber gradually rises. When oil appears on the surface, extraction is nearly finished. As soon as the oil shifts from dark to light, take the pot off the heat; otherwise the coffee will over-extract.

Most important of all: do not wait for the gurgling sound before you stop. Coffee brewed that far will taste burnt, even rubbery.

Because it generates roughly one atmosphere of pressure, the Mocha pot counts as a high-pressure brewing method, and some call it a manual espresso pot. That label is not entirely fair, since it does not meet espresso standards and cannot produce a layer of crema. What it does produce is a robust, drip-style coffee that has long appealed to drinkers who like bold flavors.

One caveat: the Mocha pot is very sensitive to capacity. You must brew according to the pot's rated size. A 2-cup pot should make 2 cups at a time. Brew only one and the coffee bed is too thin to offer enough resistance, so the water rushes through and the cup comes out under-extracted. Mocha pots come in 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 18-cup sizes, so think about your needs before buying.

Mocha Coffee

Original Mocha beans, processed by the old sun-dried method, carry wild flavors with strong chocolate notes in the aftertaste. That is why, in Italian coffee culture, "chocolate coffee" is called "Mocha coffee." Like a classic Italian latte, it is usually one-third espresso and two-thirds steamed milk foam, but with a small amount of chocolate added.

The chocolate is normally added as syrup, though some cafés use instant chocolate powder instead. Whipped cream, cocoa powder, and marshmallows are sometimes added on top to lift the aroma and to decorate. Unlike an Italian cappuccino, Mocha coffee has no fresh milk foam on top. Instead it is finished with whipped cream dusted with cinnamon or cocoa powder. Candied orange peel powder may also be sprinkled over the surface for flavor and decoration.

Yemeni Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted Yemeni Mocha beans offer solid guarantees in both brand and quality, and the value is hard to beat: a 227-gram package costs only 85 yuan. At 15 grams per cup, one package makes about 15 cups, working out to less than 6 yuan per cup. Compared with café prices that often reach dozens of yuan per cup, that is a genuinely reasonable recommendation.

Related reading: Heard that drinking Mocha coffee has many benefits? What is the price of Mocha coffee?

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Yemeni Mocha is the ancestor of so much of what we drink, and its lineage runs straight back to Ethiopia, so it is worth tasting the two side by side. FrontStreet's most accessible starting point is the FrontStreet Washed Yirgacheffe: white jasmine on the nose, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a clean, tea-like body. Yirgacheffe is a town in southern Ethiopia's Sidama zone at roughly 1700-2100 meters, with the coffee trees planted above 1800 meters, and its unmistakable florals and lemon-citrus acidity made the name shorthand for an entire style of Ethiopian coffee.

From there, two coffees show how far the family reaches. FrontStreet Gedingding Cooperative comes from the Woka area and follows the most traditional washed processing, leaving the bean's inherent aromatics sharp and clear - citrus and lemon with an elegant white floral lift. FrontStreet Natural Red Cherry is the opposite approach: only fully ripe, sound cherries are picked and dried in the sun for two weeks, then the hardened fruit, mucilage, and parchment are removed and the beans screened for density and color. The result is peach, cocoa, honey, and lemon. For something wilder, FrontStreet Kafa Forest is grown under shade from 1400-2100 meters in a UNESCO biosphere reserve; roasted medium-light, it grinds into a clear white floral aroma and brews with bright lemon acidity, sweet orange, bergamot, and a green-tea-like body.

All of these do well as pour-over. Use a 1:15 ratio and water at 90-91°C, and pour in three stages so the floral aromatics are not lost to over-extraction.