Yemen Ancient Harazi Mocha Coffee

Harazi coffee grows on stone terraces in the Haraz mountains of Yemen and is dried whole in the sun, so it tastes wild and concentrated: dark chocolate, winey blueberry, cardamom and a little leather. It is one of the coffees that once left through the port of Mocha.

Origin & Story

Coffee drinking is first documented among Sufi communities in 15th-century Yemen, where it was well established by the end of that century. For the next two hundred years Yemen was the world's main producer and exporter, and the port of Mocha, on the Red Sea, became so tied to the drink that its name still turns up on café menus and stovetop pots.

Mocha began as a small fishing village. After the Ottomans arrived in Yemen in 1538 it became a major port, and by the early 1700s English, Dutch and French trading companies all kept houses there. Coffee did not grow at Mocha itself. It came down from the mountains, and from Ethiopia, to be shipped out.

The monopoly did not last. In 1616 a Dutch merchant, Pieter van den Broecke, took coffee plants from Mocha to Amsterdam, and by the end of the 1600s the Dutch were growing coffee on Java. A plague in the 18th century, and cheaper coffee from elsewhere, weakened Mocha further.

The Haraz mountains, between Sana'a and the Red Sea coast, are still one of the main growing areas. Farmers work terraces built of dry stone, many of them centuries old, growing old local varieties such as Udaini, Dawairi and Harazi, and drying the whole cherries on rooftops and terrace walls. The coffee is dense and wild. Genuine Yemeni coffee is made in small quantities and costs accordingly, so be wary of anything sold cheaply as Mocha.

Reading the Flavor Profile

These values are comparative editorial positions within our own catalog, calibrated so entries can be ranked against each other. They are not laboratory measurements.