The Coffees of Yemen

Green Coffee Offerings : Arabia : Yemen

View Our Current Yemen Coffees

No coffees currently in stock

Upcoming Crop Comments

Given the political instability in the region, we were amazed by the quality of coffee we were able to get from our supplier in 2011 and 2012.

About Yemen's Coffee

Map of Yemen

Another Map of Yemen

Rounded Shape of Shibriqi Mokha
Shibriqi coffee cherry is smaller than Tufahi, and has a very rounded shape

Checking out the Coffee Cherry
We came across a guy resting after picking some coffee (not the guy in the image - that's me!) In Central America you see pickers with huge amounts of cherry, but with such low production in Yemen, with so little coffee in the trees, this was a miniscule bag in comparison.

Technically, Yemen is on the Asian continent (on the Arabian Peninsula) although it is really just a stone's throw from Africa, across the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. For coffee reasons, and since there is no other "Arabian" coffee, we put it in the family of tastes that are North African.

Now, what is Mokha? Al Mokha (Al-Mahka) is the port city that Yemeni coffee ships from! It has nothing to do with chocolate. Why is the coffee called Mokha? Because in the coffee trade it was too complicated to name all the little sub-regions where the coffee is actually grown, even though they do produce notably different coffees in terms of the cup. Many of the dry-process Ethiopian coffees will also call themselves Moka: Moka Harar etc. ...I believe to associate themselves with the taste profile they share with Yemens. How the heck do you spell Mokha? Well, it is spelled usually Mocca or Mocha or Moka ...but in fact the most correct spelling is the one you will never see: Al-Mahka, which is the truest to the Arabic spelling. I am trying to use it, but you will see I lapse, or in fact want to indicate also the way I am seeing it spelled on the burlap bag. Lastly, let me say that Yemeni are one of the most distinct and prized coffees in the world, but this is what we call a "wild" or natural cup ...Earthy, complex, pungent ---to some it may be strange and bitter. Either way, do yourself a favor and try it sometime.( You can see by our selection I am a fan of this unusual coffee) ... And don't blame me if you become addicted!

Yemen has a coffee culture like no other place, and perhaps some of what we enjoy in this cup is due to their old style of trade. Exporters do not buy from farms, but through an extesive network of middlemen. Local buyers receive coffee in the pod, the entire dried cherry, and that is stored, usually in underground caverns! The coffee actually exported is usually the oldest of their stocks, not new crop coffee! But this is the way it has been, and is one reason that new Yemen arrivals often have moisture content readings in the 10.5% range, in my experience. Yemeni growers are not hurt by this system with so many middlemen, largely because the coffee land under cultivation is limited, production is fairly low due to high altitude and limited inputs, and the crop is in such high demand. Competition from the Saudis also keeps Yemeni coffee prices very high. We are offering Qishr now too (also spelled Quishir, Keshir, Geshir) - the dried coffee husks used to make traditional hot infused coffee tea, or Yemen Ginger Tea.

I have posted a rather large travelogue from my Yemen trip, November 2007, and links to other articles about Yemen coffee

Coffee Farms:	330,000	Harvest Times:	Main Crop: Octy.-Dec. , 2nd harvest (some areas) in April
Coffee Workers:	1,530,000	Processing; Grading:	Natural, locally dry-processed arabica; No regulatory agency, no grading
Shading:	Wild growth, yes: N/A, Coffee grown on terraces	Certified Organic:	None certified: all coffee grown organic by tradition, no chemical inputs.
Major Coffee Growing Regions:	Mattari (from Bani Matar), Hirazi/Harasi (from Haras), Haimi, Saihi, Ismaili, Sharasi, Dhamari (from Dhamar), Rimy (from Raimi or Rayma)	Rank in Production::	10th in Asia 46th in World
Botanical Cultivars:	10 unique local varietals of original Mokha seedstock, brought from Ethiopia	Introduced:	6th Century or earlier: Introduced from Harar region of Ethiopia where coffea arabica grows wild. Yemen was the first site of coffee cultivation outside Ethiopia

Al Hagarah On the way to Haras, Yemen, you pass this especially imposing town, Al Hagarah. By the way, there's always a variety of way to spell things in Yemen. I was given the names of Al Hagrah, Al Hajrah, and Al Hagarah for this town.	I can see coffee now ... As we approached Lower Gart I could see that many of the roofs had coffee drying. Indeed, this is the middle of the Yemeni Harvest (October-December) so it makes sense.

General Yemen Roasting Tips: These coffees are very high-grown and need to be roasted slightly longer than other arabica coffees. This is a dry-processed natural coffee, and the roast color will be uneven from bean to bean ...but we judge coffee by the "cup quality," not visual appearances: don't be an "eye-cupper". Some Yemeni coffees are very small in screen size, which might cause problems in the Alpenrost. Yemeni coffee really develops its flavors over the first 2 days after roasting, especially the body/mouthfeel. Ideally, try to wait 24-48 hours before brewing. Since this is a hand prepared coffee dried in the sun - watch out for rocks! There can be small stones in the coffee that you need to cull out before roasting and definitely before grinding as these can jam a grinder. (In wet processed coffees the stones fall out in the water channel but in dry processed coffees, small stones can escape detection and make it all the way through to the final bag.) Expect uneven roast colors from Yemeni coffees, just as with the dry-processed Ethiopian coffees. Yemeni coffees pass from 1st crack to 2nd crack rapidly, so be on your toes!

Our Yemeni Offerings:

Please refer to our Reference Page for definitions of terms and cupping numbers used below. Check out the Sweet Maria's Coffee Home Roasting Forum for more conversation about home roasting this and other coffees.

We are currently out of stock. The review below is provided for your reference.

Yemen Mokha Ismaili

Ismaili is a "fabled" origin. Even in Yemen, in a local market in Sana'a, the spice-tea-qishr-coffee vendor told me his green beans (much of it broken "triage" coffee, mixed with cardamom pods) were truly special. "It's Ismaili coffee, " he said. I didn't mention that I slept on the floor of a villagers house the night before, in the mind-boggling vertical mountains of Ismaili, a landscape etched in stone with ancient terraces lined with ghat and coffee trees. The cup has always had a big spicy character, not the fruitiest Yemen coffee but with a unique flavor profile. It's amazing, with all the issues in Yemen, we were even able to get coffee exported in 2012. But here it is, and it is cupping really well.

Like most of our Yemeni coffees, Ismaili cups well along the whole roast spectrum, and its aroma and flavor profile is as variant as the roast possibilities. In the dry aroma, lighter roasts showed milk chocolate, strawberry, and banana bread, whereas darker roasts brought out overripe banana, dark berries and cacao nibs. Ismaili's crust smelled of macadamia nuts, chocolate brownie and baked brown rye, while the break released spice fragrances such as clove, cinnamon, and all spice. Darker roasts even showed signs of plum pudding. This is a very pleasant cup at City+/FC. There's a lot of dried fruit in the cup, such as tamarind, strawberry, apricot, and sliced banana. It has a rustic sweetness that is akin to natural, unrefined sugars like muscavado, or turbinado. Full City+ roasts brought out a much more intense flavor profile with strong bittersweet notes throughout. Up front we were greeted with dark berries such as blackberry and raspberry. It's still a relatively "spicy" cup, but more in line with sarsaparilla or even licorice root. There's lots of cacao in the finish alongside hints of aromatic wood. The darker roast profiles made a nice Single Origin (SO) espresso, and would also be a great component to an espresso blend. There was a lot of dark fruits in our shots, and a really nice huckleberry acidity. Whether cup or SO espresso, like all Yemeni coffee, Ismaili benefits from a few days rest. 48 hours is great but we found 72 hours to be best. This is even more true for espresso. The SO espresso was very intense and complex. With Ismaili it's fun to try a melange of 1/3 City+ roast and 2/3 FC or FC+ roast, either for drip or espresso.

View Cupping Scores

Ismaili boy, with coffee trees in the background

Country: Yemen

Grade: n/a

Region: Ismaili

Processing: Dry Process (Natural)

Arrival Date: May 2012 Arrival

Appearance: .8 d/300gr, 15-16 Screen

Varietal: Heirloom Varietals

Intensity/Prime Attribute: Bold intensity / Spice notes, chocolate, banana

Roast: City+ to Full City+ to light Vienna roast.

View Cupping Scores

We are currently out of stock. The review above is provided for your reference.

Archived Reviews

To view reviews for out of stock coffees, visit our Yemen Coffee Archives.

Click here to return to our Green Coffee Offering Page. Click here to go to our Shopping Cart System

This page is authored by Thompson Owen and Sweet Maria's Coffee, Inc. and is not to be copied or reproduced without permission