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Yemenn
Coffee
is,
The
only true
Mocha
and
The
world's
most
Most
Exotic
and
Oldest
Coffee.
Most famous coffees comes from Yemen (Ismaili, Matari). The
coffee is Yemen Mocha, long and justly considered to be the
world's greatest, uniquely delicious coffees. Once the subject
of myth, Mocha coffee has become the object of
Misunderstanding and misrepresentation (for the chocolate
taste). Mocha coffee takes its name from the Yemeni
port city called
Mocha, a small port in Yemen on the Red Sea. Some four
centuries
ago small quantities of this coffee with a very fine flavor,
grown on the hillsides of Yemen, were exported through this
port. It was the first coffee enjoyed by Europeans. Soon
after, all imports from Arabia Flex (Yemen)
were classified as
Mochas.
In the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries even coffees
grown in the West Indies, Indonesia, Ethiopia were marketed as
Mochas.
The coffee trees growing in the West Indies were at that time
the grandchildren of the trees in Yemen; the beans produced in
both locales were, to the taste, indistinguishable. Since
place names were intended primarily as guides to flavor, the
labeling was, if literally inaccurate, effectively true. Were
the growths of Yemen compared today, the difference in flavors
would be easily recognized. An attempt to classify these
growths as Mochas in the modern marketplace would be deceptive
and confusing and foolish. How did what was true become a lie?
The soil, altitude, and climate of any given coffee-growing
area contribute unique characteristics of body, flavor, and
aroma to the beans produced in that area. It has been
centuries since the Arabian seed was smuggled and
transplanted to the West Indies, Indonesia, and Caribbean
coffee has taken on the character of its new home. For
better or worse it must live
up
to the merits of its new name-not the name of its ancestors.
Yemen
Mocha
Coffee
is cultivated and processed today much as it has been for
centuries. Seedlings, grown in nurseries, are transplanted to
terraced farms (from 6,000 feet to 7,500 feet), which have
been carved out of the steep hillsides. Lack of rain
necessitates the maintenance of irrigation systems designed to
provide the trees with controlled constant moisture. The
relative dryness of the soil and air results in the production
of a bean that is small and extremely hard. Yemen's entire
tiny crop is processed by the dry method, and much of it, in
fact, is permitted to dry on the tree before picking and
hulling. Again, it is the dry hot air that permits this
unusual but in this case,advantageous technique. This rather
primitive method of producing coffee goes back centuries and
accounts for the classic flavor which this wonderful coffee
displays. It's worth noting that this coffee is grown
organically. It is not something the farmers set out to do,
but there is probably no more primitive coffee-growing area on
earth. The region is very remote, and the dried coffee must be
carried out of the steep valleys by donkeys. Carrying in heavy
fertilizers is beyond consideration even if it might increase
yields.
Yemen
Mocha
is packed in special plaited straw packages known as 'mats"
rather than the bags now used universally. The appearance of
the bean is as unique as its packing. These small round beans
are irregular in form and size with a peculiar pale green to
yellow color. But despite this (or perhaps because of it),
they yield one of the finest cups of coffee on earth. The
Yemen Mocha has tremendous character and wonderful complexity.
It can be described as winey, spicy, nutty, malty and fruity.
Its uniquely acid cup makes this coffee simultaneously smooth
and piquant (pleasantly pungent). It possesses heavy body, and
unique flavors a characteristic usually lacking in its nearest
cousins, the Ethiopians. This coffee yields one of the most
superbly aromatic and uniquely-flavorful cups in the world. We
feel fortunate to be able and continue to bring this rare and
delicious coffee to our customers the same way started more
than 400 years ago.
Botanical
varieties:
Virtually
all Yemen coffee comes from ancient, "heirloom" varieties of
coffee arabica first naturalized hundreds of years ago. The
two most famous are Ismaili, which produces small, round,
pea-like beans, and Mattari, which produces small,
rounded, oval beans.
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