What is Yemeni coffee?

Yemeni coffee is one of the oldest commercial coffees in the world, farmed since the 15th century on the terraced mountainsides of western Yemen between 1,500 and 2,400 metres. Processed naturally by smallholder farmers, it has an unmistakable cup: wine-like, dried fruit, dark chocolate, spices, sometimes wild, with a complex acidity you rarely find elsewhere.

Yemen holds a unique place in coffee history. The very first commercial shipments of coffee beans to Europe left the Red Sea port of Mocha (Al-Mukha) in the 17th century, and it is that port that gave the generic drink 'mocha' its name. For nearly two centuries, Yemeni and neighbouring Ethiopian coffees together made up virtually the entire global coffee trade, long before Colombia or Brazil existed as origins.

The geography is extreme. Coffee trees are planted on tiny dry-stone terraces clinging to the mountain slopes of Sana'a, Haraz, Bani Matar, Ismaili and Yafé, mostly between 1,500 and 2,400 metres, in a semi-arid climate that stresses the plant and concentrates its sugars. Most plots are under one hectare and typically intercrop coffee with qat, legumes and figs.

Varieties are ancient descendants of Typica and Bourbon, locally known as Udaini, Dawairi, Tuffahi or Haimi. The Yemen Coffee Genome study published in 2020 confirmed they form a mosaic of genetically distinct landraces, sometimes closer to the wild Ethiopian Arabica gene pool than to any modern commercial cultivar.

Processing is almost exclusively natural: cherries dry on rooftops or raised beds for three to six weeks, then small local mills hull them dry. Combined with altitude, intense sun and heirloom genetics, this method gives a cup often described as 'an oxidised red wine': muscat grape, cocoa nibs, soft tobacco, cardamom, sometimes wild fermentation. Despite a civil war that has pushed annual production below 15,000 tonnes since 2014, initiatives similar to Cup of Excellence — notably the Yemenia Auction launched in 2020 and the Qima Foundation programme — have put these historical coffees back on the map of specialty drinkers in Belgium and across Europe.

Yemeni coffee snapshot