Description
Low Stock Blowout – Only 13 pound left! $23.99 Regular Price
This lot comprises fresh coffee cherries collected at Mashtal ul Burhani, a privately owned collection center in Haraaz that collaborates with Al-Ezzi in the collection and tracing of high-quality coffee cherry from farmers in the area.
Fresh as can be! For those who had the Haraaz offering last season, this cup is a little more fruit forward, a bit cleaner with complimenting chocolaty undertones and some rocking spice notes. A great year for it.
Yemeni coffee has the second-longest history in the world, after Ethiopian coffee, and truly specialty coffee from Yemen is both elusive and exquisite. Coming from Al-Ezzi Industries, a development and export company based in Haraaz, Yemen, and founded by Shabbir A. Ezzi, an entrepreneur whose focus is on both quality of coffee and quality of life for producers.
Al-Ezzi works with smallholder producers in the mountains of Haraaz, offering them considerably higher than local market prices for their coffee, and providing traceability and transparency for pricing and supply chain logistics to both the producers and to our buddies @ Cafe Imports, who is the importer behind Harraz coffees in the US. Coffees are bought at several different quality tiers for Al-Ezzi, which allows producers to both work within their traditional practices and transition to a full specialty focus. Producers are issued ID cards for their work with Al-Ezzi, and those ID cards are used to track the quality, quantity, and payment for their lots in the different tiers. Al-Ezzi encourages producers to replace their narcotic qat plants with coffee, and provides support through several receiving stations throughout the area.
This lot comprises fresh coffee cherries collected at the Jameeyat al Salool COOP that collaborates with Al-Ezzi in the collection and tracing of high-quality coffee cherry from farmers in the area.
Altitude: 1900 – 2440 masl
Varieties: Tuffahi, Dawairi, Jaadi, various other heirloom varieties
Tasting Notes: Fruit, spice, and chocolate tones mix to create a very tasty cup profile. Lighter roasts will show some acidity upfront but it’s soft and sweet. First tones to hit the tongue will be exotic fruitiness that will vary between tropical and stone fruit dependent on roast; balanced with small hints of chocolaty spice. Medium roasts mute some of the fruitier aspects of the cup and lesson the acidity but bring forth much more depth to the chocolaty spice. Darker roasts mute most of the fruity factor and turn the cup a bit bittersweet- although still exotic and tasty at a darker roast, one loses those awesome lighter tones that demand the higher price on these beans.
Roasting Notes: Yemen is usually old world natural processed – high chaff and a bit uneven roasting. These beans however, still have a bit higher chaff but are much much more even roasting than most other Yemen’s we have come across.
Farmers are paid higher prices for delivering fresh-picked ripe cherry as opposed to the dried cherry that Yemeni producers have usually brought to market, which allows Al-Ezzi to control the processing more meticulously and achieve exceptional cups. There are five quality tiers Al-Ezzi currently assigns to coffees delivered to the receiving stations:
- Moka – A workhorse lot of reliably good but not microlot-quality dried cherries from many producers which offers an above-standard quality at an affordable price.
- Haraaz Traceable – Dried cherries purchased directly from producers who are identified using their ID cards with Al-Ezzi.
- Haraaz Fresh – Fresh coffee cherries purchased directly from producers who are identified using their ID cards with Al-Ezzi.
- Haraaz Red – Fresh red cherries purchased directly from producers who have gone the extra mile to sort out any undesirable cherries, identified using their ID cards with Al-Ezzi.
- Haraaz Microlot – Fresh red cherries bought from a single producer and kept separated from the larger blended lots.
Farmers who deliver to Al-Ezzi receive more than 88% of the FOB price of their coffee.
kevinrcurt (verified owner) –
I saw an article about Yemeni coffee, their history, quality, rarity, cost, etc. So, for fun I ordered a couple pounds of this to roast. I’m a fan of African coffees and their fruit notes. I keep my roasts on the light side, mid first crack to just the end of first crack. Roasted these Yemen beans the same. Short story… I’ll stick with Ethiopian and Kenyan beans. Don’t get me wrong, this is good. Just not $23/lb good. Glad I tried it though.
kevinrcurt (verified owner) –
I decided I needed to update my previous review. When I originally wrote that the beans were only a day or two out of the roaster. They obviously had not peaked. Since then, they have only become fruitier. Damn near like a jammy red wine. I’m blown away by the aroma of the roasted beans. And the brew is stellar. So, I would highly recommend trying these out. Again, light roast recommended. Wish I could afford to buy these all the time. This is my new favorite splurge. Just not a daily drinker. I’m saving them for Sat and Sun mornings.