Description
Wonderful Yemeni coffee finally made it through. A late arrival but with the turmoil on the other side of the world, understandable. Nothing like a stellar Yemen, we are glad to have them up on the list.
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 particular lot is from individual producer Husein al Me’qabi
Altitude: 1900 – 2440 masl
Varieties: Tuffahi, Dawairi, Jaadi, various other heirloom varieties
Tasting Notes: Fruit, spice, and chocolate tones mix to create a world class cup profile. Lighter roasts will show stronger acidity upfront accentuating the exotic acidity/fruitiness that will vary between citric, tropical and stone fruit; dependent on roast level and setup. Pulls great balance with a chocolatier profile and tons of spice notes. Medium roasts still present a bit of acidity with a noticeable fruitier aspects, balancing with those lovely and complex chocolaty spice notes only Yemen can bring to the table. Darker roasts are a bold and spicy cup, the roasty tones mix nicely with the unique spice, a little fruitiness pops as the cup cools.
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. Beans darken up a bit quickly, may appear a shade darker then they actually are. Lighter roasts show the quality of the bean but will be a bit sharp to sip on all day. Medium to dark makes for easier drinking all day, but will mute up some of the jazzier qualities.
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.
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