Yemen

There is a lot of coffee in Columbus but none of it grew here. This is another installment in our continuing series of producer-country profiles intended to get a sense of what a massive undertaking it is to get coffee from there to here.

Yemen's history is closely tied to coffee. Yemenis were the first to popularize coffee, trade coffee, and establish a "coffee culture." Coffee may have evolved in Africa, but coffee as we know it started at the tip of the Arabian peninsula. Located just across the Red Sea from coffee's native Ethiopia, it was a natural launch pad for the small fruit that would become the world's rocket fuel.

Republic of Yemen

Distance from Columbus, Ohio: 7335 miles (11803 km)

Capital: Sanaa (or Sana'a)

Relative Size: Slightly larger than twice the size of Wyoming

Major Coffee Growing Regions:
Mattari (from Bani Matar), Hirazi/Harasi (from Haras), Haimi, Saihi, Ismaili, Sharasi, Dhamari from Dhamar), Rimy (from Raimi or Rayma).

Introduced from Ethiopia around the 6th century, full-scale coffee cultivation began in Yemen around the 15th century. The old port of Mocha (or Moka, or Mokka, or Mokha, or...) was formerly a major site of international trade and a point on the route of goods from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean (before the contstruction of the Suez Canal). Mocha became synonymous with coffee, becoming a generic term for the drink early in the beverage's history. Abandoned, it has been replaced by the ports of Adan, Hudaydah, and Mukalla.

Today, the coffee trade in Yemen runs a lot like it has for centuries. People grow it casually at home or on small-holder farms and sell the dry-processed beans through a byzantine system of traders and exporters. Of the small amount of arable land in Yemen (2.91% of Yemeni territory) there are 330,000 coffee farms and an estimated 1,530,000 people working in the coffee industry.

Yemeni coffee is dried on the ground before the bean is removed from the fruit and mucilage that encases the roastable seed (called Dry or Natural processing). This method, along with the terroir of the various growing regions, imparts flavors ranging from winey, wild, and earthy to fruity or acidy. Yemenis who grow coffee are coffee drinkers themselves and may also enjoy a tea-like beverage called qishr made from the dried husks and a mix of spices. A typical day in Yemen may start with coffee, switching later to qishr as the day heats up in the afternoon.

Sources: CIA Factbook, Sweet Maria's, ICO, CoffeeReview.com, Tea & Coffee Trade Journal.

Previously: Brazil