YEMEN: COFFEE’S FORGOTTEN BEGINNINGS

Sipping coffee is the world’s favorite pastime, but did you know that we have Yemen to thank for this? Although Yemen was the catalyst for the coffee culture we enjoy today, its role in the world of coffee has fallen under the radar and has been forgotten for the past hundreds of years.

Yemen became the first country to cultivate coffee commercially starting in the 15th century and remained the only country to do so for the next couple of centuries.

Coffee was introduced to Yemen in the 15th century when Arabs brought coffee seedlings across the Red Sea from the Kaffa region of their native Ethiopia, where coffee trees grew in the wild. The coffee trees introduced to Yemen would eventually result in the development of heirloom varieties such as Udaini and Ismaili as well as more commonly known varieties today like Typica and Bourbon.

While coffee is believed to have first been consumed in Ethiopia, it was brewed and popularized in Yemen starting in approximately 1450 when coffee was drunk by Sufis to stay awake for night prayers. The eventual discovery of roasting coffee beans was revolutionary, but in Yemen, the most popular way to consume coffee was and still is as qishr, a hot drink made of coffee husks (also known as cascara), ginger and cinnamon.

Coffee was and continues to be cultivated high on terraced mountains and nourished by natural fertilizers. As water was scarce, it was managed through strategic irrigation systems. Cherries were always handpicked and then processed.

The earliest method of processing coffee was natural processing (also known as dry processing) and remains the same today in Yemen.

In this method, coffee cherries were laid out on flat outdoor surfaces, dried under the sun and manually turned over often to ensure even drying before dehulling the coffee beans.

Coffee quickly became a sensation and a much-desired commodity in Yemen and other regions of the world. As Yemen popularized coffee and became the world’s source of coffee, it gave rise to the coffee species name Arabica. Coffee traveled outward from major ports, such as Al Mokha, Aden, and Hodeidah, that were integral in connecting the East and West. As Al Mokha was the most well-known port, its name became associated with coffee and later inspired coffee-related terms such as mocha, moka, and mokka. In the 16th century, coffee from Yemen was taken to other parts of the Middle East, Turkey and Persia, and was then introduced to Europe by the Ottomans. For two centuries, all coffee consumed in the world came from Yemen.

Port of Al Mokha

In the 17th century, raw Typica coffee seeds from Yemen were smuggled out and cultivated in India, from which coffee seeds were sent to Java and Ceylon through the Dutch East Indian Company. The Typica variety became distinguished in 1706 when a single coffee plant was isolated and taken from Java to Amsterdam. Following the Netherlands and France’s signing of the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, the mayor of Amsterdam gifted the French King Louis XIV a coffee plant. Not long after, the Typica seeds yielded in the Netherlands and France were cultivated in colonial America. The Typicaline now includes famous varieties like Maragogype and Blue Mountain. 

Also in the 17th century, the Bourbon variety became distinguished when the French took coffee seeds of Bourbon variety from Yemen to the French colonial island of Bourbon or modern day Réunion. It wasn’t until the mid-19th century that coffee from Bourbon was taken to Africa and the Americas. The Bourbon line now includes varieties like Caturra and Pacas.

As coffee diversified upon being dispersed around the world from Yemen’s ports, its Yemeni beginnings became forgotten. Further, Yemen’s recent cholera outbreak and multiple civil wars, spanning from the 1960s till today, have created obstacles in Yemeni coffee production. Although coffee production in Yemen experienced a revival in the 1980s, it was soon interrupted by civil war, which continues to put civilians’ safety at risk, tamper with access to water and electricity and complicates coffee transportation within Yemen and its exportation.

Another challenge for the Yemeni coffee industry has been its uphill battle against qat, a cash crop and stimulant drug that occupies more than 40% of Yemen’s agricultural land and water source. As qat is an addictive narcotic utilized by many, the qat industry generates high profits and can be seen as the favorable crop for farmers as coffee harvests in Yemen can be as small as 500g to 50kg.

Yemen’s coffee cultivation and consumption served not only as the driving force behind the impact that coffee has had on society for centuries, but also as a template for the many coffee growing regions around the globe.

Although its spotlight has been dimmed and its name has been forgotten, Yemen is a model in maintaining tradition and quality, and continues to produce some of the most exquisite coffee in the world.