Mocha coffee originated in Yemen, but can it improve the country's dire situation?

Yemen has been caught in years of uninterrupted war since 2014. Last week, the Geneva-based World Economic Forum released a ranking of the competitiveness of global economies, with Yemen ranking last at 137th. The World Economic Forum called Yemen a country "further devastated by civil war, economic collapse, cholera and near-famine conditions."

But recently, people may have seen hope that the situation is getting better. According to the Arab media alarabiya, Yemen's Minister of Environment and Water Ezzi Shuraim visited Taiz two weeks ago. This is the first time in recent years that a Yemeni government official has visited this city that was recently liberated from the armed forces of the Hussein organization. Ezzi Shuraim met with the local government and discussed the restoration and reconstruction of the city. He also mentioned a coastal city called Mocha located west of Taiz and talked about the plan to build a desalination plant there in the future.

Coffee lovers may wonder why this seaside town called Mocha has the same name as the popular fancy coffee? The answer is that this is not a coincidence, because the name of Mocha coffee originated from here, but this connection happened hundreds of years ago.

If we go back in time to the late 17th century and early 18th century, Mocha, as a port city, was a prosperous commercial port with developed maritime trade. Many merchant ships were loaded with coffee beans with wild cocoa flavor produced in this country. They would cross the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea and eventually become a fascinating black drink with chocolate flavor on the European tables: coffee.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the early 18th century was the heyday of coffee trade between Yemen and Europe, which directly laid the foundation for European coffee culture and later expanded to North America, Asia, etc. It can be said that without Yemen's "Mocha", there would be no coffee, one of the world's three major beverages, which has become popular all over the world.

Don’t get me wrong, Ethiopia is indeed the home of coffee, but according to the World Coffee Research Organization (WCR) historical records, as early as the fifth century BC, the port of Mocha in Yemen welcomed the first batch of coffee beans from Ethiopia, which became the starting point of Yemen’s relationship with coffee. Coffee as a drink first appeared in human history in the Yemeni city of Zabid.

Mark Pendergrast, a coffee researcher, said in her book that in 1450, coffee became a must for Arab Sufis in Yemen before evening prayers to keep their minds clear during prayers. This drink, which was originally a medicinal or religious drink, soon became part of people's daily lives. In 1517, the Ottoman Turks incorporated Yemen into their territory, and the reputation of coffee spread rapidly through the promotion of this once-prosperous empire.

At the end of the 15th century, Muslim pilgrims further promoted coffee throughout the Islamic world. In order to meet the growing consumer demand, Yemenis began to grow coffee themselves, and Yemen became the first country in the world to produce coffee on a large scale as a crop. Soon, people discovered that this plant can only be grown in high altitude areas, so the port of "Mocha", which is adjacent to the highlands and has a relatively complete dock infrastructure, became the most suitable place to export coffee.

In the early 17th century, the Dutch first established a coffee trading company, and coffee began to be exported to Europe from the port of Mocha. In the Western European markets from Amsterdam to Paris, people began to call this refreshing black drink "Mocha". "Because most of the beans were exported from the port of Mocha in Yemen to other countries, people used the name of the port to refer to Yemeni coffee." Because of its unique chocolate aroma, people later referred to fancy coffees with the addition of cocoa milk or chocolate syrup as Mocha.

The production of Yemeni coffee is now far less than before. Mocha is no longer the global coffee center and has even lost its function as a commercial port. However, Yemen still produces some of the most unique coffee beans in the world. For example, Yemeni Mocha Mattari coffee is still a bean that makes true coffee lovers crazy.

It comes from Bany Mattar Province, west of the capital of Yemen, where local coffee farmers still continue the ancient tradition of coffee production and planting: try not to use artificial chemicals such as chemical fertilizers, and plant poplar trees to provide the shade space needed for coffee growth. Just like hundreds of years ago, these trees are planted on steep terraces. On the barren and dry land, small beans with a light green color grow. After deep roasting, they will show the attractive bittersweet flavor of chocolate, as well as complex aromas such as red wine, tobacco, cinnamon, and a long creamy aftertaste. In addition, due to its scarce production, Yemen's mocha coffee is becoming more precious in the market. In 2016, the average price of Yemeni coffee in the United States was $173 per pound.

Although Yemen's coffee trade is not as good as before, it still retains some unique advantages. On the one hand, the top varieties of Yemeni Mocha coffee, such as Madaly and Mokha Ismaili, are still extremely valuable in the coffee market and are the specialty coffees that coffee enthusiasts are crazy about.

On the other hand, according to the analysis of the International Coffee Organization (ICO), consumers in Western countries have been increasingly inclined to consume coffee from origins with high quality and low prices in recent years. Yemen still produces more than 10,000 tons of coffee each year, and it truly has the selling points of being original and pollution-free, which are valued by Western countries. If the picking, drying and roasting techniques of coffee beans can be improved, a quality control system can be established, and a larger proportion of beans can meet the import standards of developed countries, there is still a lot of room for upward development. Perhaps, in addition to relying on foreign forces to build a desalination plant, the coffee crops grown on this land may also bring some hope to this country plagued by war and division in the future.

Title image source: Medium

Source: Reuters, Dutch geographer-mapmaker Olfert Dapper, AP