Al Mokha

12/12/2024

We are getting into the holiday season, and I wanted to kick things off with a new coffee blend. Normally, I name coffees for the region of origin (e.g. Haraaz, Matari, Al Qafr). But here I go a different direction, and name this for one of our counterparts in Yemen. By counterparts, I mean an expor...

12/17/2023

🎄🎁 Christmas orders by Tue, Dec 19, 4 PM with "Standard Shipping" 🎁🎄

Let us induce coffee euphoria. Or in archaic Arabic, marqaha. And I'm not talking about the whirling dervishes and Sufi monastics that discovered coffee roasting and coffee drinking circa 1450, and experienced coffee euphoria marqaha. No, I'm talking about something equally maddening. In Yemeni coff...

12/13/2023

–Place your holiday coffee orders now.
–Read why we name coffees by region (e.g. Haraaz Region, Burai Region, Pearls of Al Qafr).
(Click link in bio for our latest email, which we sent to our 6,500 subscribers.)

12/13/2023

–Place your holiday coffee orders.
–Read why we name coffees by region (e.g. Haraaz Region, Burai Region, Pearls of Al Qafr).
(Click the photo for our latest email, which we sent to our 6,500 subscribers.)

You did it, you waited patiently to get FRESH holiday coffee. Get orders in over the next fortnight. I have much coffee and a "How to Choose Guide" to share. Photo caption: Ripe coffee cherries drying on raised beds in Yemen's sunshine (Haraaz Region). Traditionally, it is dried directly on a roofto...

05/02/2023

What a nail-biter of a review 😬😂

DON'T RUN OUT
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
On the morning of April 27, 2023, I opened my coffee canister to find only a few day's worth of my coveted Yemeni Medium. I made a note to order more. Two days later, still remiss, I shook out the last few grinds of coffee, cursed myself, and then went straight to my computer to order more. But it was too late.
A day later, I was forced to open the emergency stash of a well-known American coffee, one that purports to be quite good to the very last drop. Sad and humiliated, I put a few scoops into my French press - one, mind you, that had only known the richness of the Al Mokha brand. The water boiled. The cup prepared. The coffee poured and a little brown sugar added. I sat down, chin up, premeditating any and all thoughts positive and encouraging that it certainly would be good, or, at the very least, tolerable.
I was wrong.
It was a bad cup of coffee.
Now, I am not a coffee aficionado. No expert with the terms and taxonomy of what a really good cup of coffee is. But the words flat, bitter, sour and peat moss came to mind. What had I done? Who is Stella and why did I want to yell out her name?
Waiting patiently for my package of Al Mokha to arrive, I did endure two more mornings and afternoons of bad coffee - one being a lukewarm cup from Wawa, after driving a friend to return a puppy that barked too much. (Could my day have been any worse?)
When I came home, there it was. My package of Yemeni Medium snug in my mailbox. With a thank you note from Anda on the box itself.
My day instantly got better. Some sort of Pavlovian effect warmed my palate. I had dinner, finished a book and, I kid you not, shut my eyes smiling, knowing that in the morning I had my true coffee sitting on the counter.
This morning, I sit here writing an extensive and probably exhausting review, The birds are singing sweeter, the fiddleheads and quince are prettier, and my heart is beating just a little faster. I don't care that I forgot to put out the trash, that I have to go to the courthouse, that I have to work the garden in boots when this godforsaken mud dries up a bit. I don't care!
Thank you, Anda, for making my days begin with a touch of deserved decadence.
For this beautiful hot cup of coffee, with notes of caramel and raisins and rich coffee bean.
What a pleasure it always brings.

04/29/2023

If you've ever emailed me asking for coffee tips—What to buy? How to brew it?—my answer has been pretty consistent. Whatever your preferred roast (light, medium, or dark), go with that. The reality is a dark roast lover loves dark roast; and someone like me that drinks light roast always…well,...

03/10/2023

Our latest email, about coffee from Haima. And you can buy it, of course—light, medium, or dark roast.

Haima Region coffee.
Hello! Technically Happy New Year! I'm perennially behind in getting out these (delicious) updates.

Without any ado, this is the newest coffee lot:

LIGHT roast / Haima Region: Nutty, mild, and a particular warmth of flavor. Traditional Yemen character, but from a new vantage point.

MEDIUM roast / Haima Region: Nutty, round, toasty and mild. An enjoyable Yemen coffee, down to the very last drop.

DARK roast / Haima Region: Big flavor, chocolate, roasty, and toasty. A delicious dark roast, plain and simple.

This coffee, it's what I'll call a short lot in that I'll have it for a relatively short ~2 months. This year I'm trying to share more coffee regions with you.

What's compelling about this Haima region is how it's nutty and mild as a Light and Medium roast. When I say it's a new vantage point for Yemen, I really mean it. Imagine Yemen coffee in which you turned down the rustic, sandy, wild notes...now the nutty that has been there all along can shine through. And as a Dark roast, the nutty becomes rich, deep, and bold. So give it a shot, while it's around for a short time. We haven't had Haima since Oct 2018.

Also, we still have the tasty Matari Region (light, med, dark), for about 3 more months. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: this is my favorite region of Yemen. It differs from the Haima in that Matari has richness that is just the essence of coffee, but twice as strong. Or coffee with notes of coffee. It's an enigma, but try it and you will be free....

Hello! Technically Happy New Year! I'm perennially behind in getting out these (delicious) updates. Without any ado, this is the newest coffee lot: LIGHT roast / Haima Region: Nutty, mild, and a particular warmth of flavor. Traditional Yemen character, but from a new vantage point. MEDIUM roast / Ha...

12/29/2022

Most recent email! Learn how Al Mokha coffee gets to you from Yemen!

Feel free to subscribe (~6 emails/year)

A longer story to be shared as you drink your coffee. But this email is not about that last minute shopping. Instead, I want to tell you about the coffee you're drinking right now or hopefully within the next week. I want you reading this email aloud to friends and family. Let's answer these questio...

12/15/2022

Meant to post this sooner! Place your holiday orders by Dec 19!
This (linked) update all about our newest coffees and some tips on choosing that great bag of coffee. Plus a personal anecdote!
–Anda (owner)

Hellloooooo! The orders are coming in non-stop. Here's a quick-ish overview of what's available! First, the Matari Region coffee has just launched. This is a long-time favorite and famous origin. In one sentence: it's like coffee, just way more intense. It's coffee with notes of coffee. You'll try i...

12/05/2022

She's one of the top scholars in the field. Don't miss this event if you want to really dig into the history of the city of Mocha, Yemen.

The next IASA event, organised with the British Yemeni Society and the MBI al Jaber Foundation, will be on 12 December at 6pm (GMT), 1pm (EST), 7pm (CET) and 9 pm (Sanaa time). Dr Nancy Um will give a talk in which she will reflect on the Yemeni port city of Mocha and its history in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, drawing on the research that she conducted for her book, The Merchant Houses of Mocha: Trade and Architecture in an Indian Ocean Port (University of Washington Press, 2009). She will also share new findings and interpretations that have emerged since its publication.

Nancy Um is currently Associate Director for Research and Knowledge Creation at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. From 2001 to 2022, she was a faculty member in the Department of Art History at Binghamton University. Her research explores the Islamic world from the perspective of the coast, with a focus on material, visual and built culture on the Arabian Peninsula and around the rims of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. She is the author of The Merchant Houses of Mocha: Trade and Architecture in an Indian Ocean Port (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2009) and Shipped but not Sold: Material Culture and the Social Protocols of Trade during Yemen’s Age of Coffee (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2017), in addition to studies about trade, art, diplomacy, and gift exchange around the early modern Indian Ocean rim.

The lecture will be given by Zoom. To join please register using the following link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/3316685264689/WN__RWXPluZT7OzQhqRSP5L6g

سيكون حدث IASA القادم ، الذي يتم تنظيمه مع الجمعية اليمنية البريطانية ومؤسسة MBI al Jaber ، في 12 ديسمبر في تمام الساعة 6 مساءً (بتوقيت جرينتش) ، 1 مساءً (بتوقيت شرق الولايات المتحدة) ، 7 مساءً (بتوقيت وسط أوروبا) و 9 مساءً (بتوقيت صنعاء). ستلقي الدكتورة نانسي أم محاضرة تتأمل فيها مدينة المخا الساحلية اليمنية وتاريخها في القرنين السابع عشر والثامن عشر ، بالاعتماد على البحث الذي أجرته لكتابها ، منازل التجار في المخا: التجارة والعمارة في ميناء المحيط الهندي (مطبعة جامعة واشنطن ، 2009). كما ستشارك النتائج والتفسيرات الجديدة التي ظهرت منذ نشرها.

نانسي أم هي حاليًا مديرة مساعدة للبحوث وخلق المعرفة في معهد جيتي للأبحاث في لوس أنجلوس. من 2001 إلى 2022 ، كانت عضو هيئة تدريس في قسم تاريخ الفن في جامعة بينغهامتون. يستكشف بحثها العالم الإسلامي من منظور الساحل ، مع التركيز على الثقافة المادية والبصرية والمبنية في شبه الجزيرة العربية وحول حواف البحر الأحمر والمحيط الهندي. وهي مؤلفة كتاب The Merchant Houses of Mocha: التجارة والهندسة المعمارية في ميناء على المحيط الهندي (سياتل: مطبعة جامعة واشنطن ، 2009) وتم شحنها ولكن لم يتم بيعها: الثقافة المادية والبروتوكولات الاجتماعية للتجارة خلال عصر القهوة في اليمن (هونولولو : مطبعة جامعة هاواي ، 2017) ، بالإضافة إلى دراسات حول التجارة والفن والدبلوماسية وتبادل الهدايا حول حافة المحيط الهندي الحديثة المبكرة.

المحاضرة سوف يلقيها Zoom. للانضمام ، يرجى التسجيل باستخدام الرابط التالي:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/3316685264689/WN__RWXPluZT7OzQhqRSP5L6g

07/26/2022

We've been busy shipping coffee and finally have an update to share!

Fear not, we have plenty of coffee in stock. We also have a good story about how we did one year of sales in one day, following a CBS news segment. That email linked below:

A very short update. Helloooooo coffee lovers! I've been MIA for 7 months not sending any coffee emails to you. The reason for that is simple—Yemeni coffee was on CBS Sunday Morning with Jane Pauley (Nov 21, 2021) and we were DELUGED with orders. I'm talking we did one year of sales in one day. An...

11/06/2021

If you're not on our email list, have a look at our latest update below.

It's all about how you make the perfect Mokha-Java coffee blend. Yes plz.

Painting is a 1690s London coffee shop and holds the secret to success.

The secret is following the recipe of Mokha + Java and translating that London cafe drawing into a heterogenous roasting style.