Opinion | Yemeni coffee: Taste the price of history

Muhammad Karkoutli, junior economics and political science major

Would you pay $16 for a cup of coffee?

For some, the mention of coffee conjures up troubled stomachs, caffeine jitters, and too much creamer. But those side effects are for those who frequent chains like Starbucks.

I bought this $16 dollar coffee because it’s no ordinary coffee. It’s from a region where the concept and culture of coffee emerged. It’s from Yemen, a country located in the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, overlooking the Red and Arabian Seas.

Coffee was first roasted, brewed and consumed by Sufi monks in Yemen. They discovered that the drink enabled them to pray throughout the night and soon,coffee houses multiplied throughout the Islamic world.

Coffee was met with opposition once it arrived in Europe – it was even labeled it “the bitter invention of Satan.” But after Pope Clement VIII tried the drink and gave his approval, a wild expansion in coffee consumption ensued. Beans were smuggled, planted, and traded across the globe spanning South East Asia, South America and Africa. The drink has spawned several industries: farmers, exporters, importers, roasters and cafes. And it all began in Yemen.

Sixty percent of the world’s coffee production is Coffea arabica, a coffee plant that first grew in the mountains of Yemen. (Some coffee purists often debate coffee’s true origin: Ethiopia or Yemen.) While the coffee trade did begin in Yemen, modern coffee export statistics don’t reveal this fact. The top coffee exporters are Brazil, Colombia, and Vietnam, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity. The top coffee exporters in the world do not include Yemen, even though it is the birthplace of the trade.

That’s partially because Yemen is currently mired in a civil war – and civil war is not conducive to thriving trade. But that isn’t the only issue. Yemeni coffee’s quality has been largely inconsistent due to a combination of factors, including inadequate technology, outdated agricultural methods, civil war, lack of economic development. Above all, war-torn Yemen is in the midst the United Nations dubbed the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. currently taking place in Yemen.

But recently, Mokhtar Alkhanshali, a young Yemeni-American, set off on a journey to revitalize the Yemeni coffee trade. Alkhanshali traveled to over 30 different coffee regions, introduced improved agricultural methods and rekindled the Yemeni coffee trade as the civil war broke out. He was able to import and improve the quality of Yemeni coffee, with one of his varieties receiving the a 97 out of 100, the highest-ever rating from Coffee Review magazine. That’s the coffee available for $16 a cup at Blue Bottle Coffee, a California roaster.

That price tag is what piqued my interest. Why the price, was it any good, and where could I get some? After some research, I ordered a package of ground coffee. When it arrived, I ripped open one of the packets, spilling some in the process, and took a deep whiff. The coffee smelled like sweet berries or possibly, as the bag noted, tamarind, apricot and wine.

I dumped the packet into my well-used glass pour-over. After a few minutes and several bouts of carefully pouring increments of hot water over the ground coffee, it was ready. The coffee is light and complex, similar to a tea, with a caramel aftertaste that eliminates the need for additives like sugar or milk.

But perhaps more interesting than the coffee’s flavor is its story. Each tree that grew the coffee beans was properly cared for. Each bean was hand-picked, dried, processed, packaged, shipped and roasted. Ordering a cup of coffee isn’t as simple as you might think – behind your coffee order is an ecosystem in constant flux.

So should you dish out more than is normal for a cup of coffee? If it’s Yemeni coffee, the answer is yes. It’s a steep price, but with each sip, you’re tasting the coffee history that emerged from Yemen. It’s only right to pay back a long overdue debt to the region that gave us coffee. If that’s not enough of an incentive, the coffee tastes great. Don’t take my word for it, try it yourself.