Every hand cradling a cup of specialty coffee is not far from the hands that water & tend to the blessed land it grows on. 

This is a sentiment especially resonant with our affinity to the most exquisite coffees from Yemen. That’s because, as we have been learning, it’s always been the steepest uphill climb for all involved across the specialty coffee value chain —

But exceptionally so for the smallholder Yemeni coffee farmers — to revive their centuries-old coffee trade and keep it alive and persistently thriving as the main source of livelihood and a significant, transnational cultural artifact. 

As such, it's with deep gratitude and joy that we have partnered with Mokha not Mocha! for the 3rd year, to bring you the sweetest fruits of the steadfast and praiseworthy Yemeni coffee farmers' labors from the Ibb and Sana’a Governorates. 

Help nourish Yemen’s enduring coffee farming communities with every cup you brew, enjoy, and share of these new coffees in our Archers Yemen Nano-lot Collection. Find them here online, or when you browse the retail shelves at our roastery in Sharjah soon.

Rightfully Evoking Reminiscence of Coffee’s Arabian Roots

Mokha not Mocha was founded by Abdulrahman Hayel Saeed to help bring ease to the Yemeni farmers’ lives by providing a venue for continuously improving Yemeni coffee quality, commercial value, and reception in the international, higher-end specialty coffee market.

Beyond the pragmatic, he astutely switched the Arabic kh in place of ch in naming his company Mokha not Mocha, to evoke proud reminiscence of coffee’s Arabian roots. 

Prior to the involvement of civic-minded and specialty coffee-proficient producers like Mokha not Mocha, Yemeni coffee farmers like in the Ibb and Sana’a Governorates would have solely relied on a combination of their practical experience and their inherited, pragmatic understanding of how to cultivate, pick, and process the coffee cherries.

Detrimental practices that had been discontinued since include indiscriminate picking of coffee cherries regardless of ripeness level, and carrying out the crucial post-harvest processing phases of fermentation and drying, as well as storage, in uncontrolled and unsatisfactory environments that compromised the organoleptic attributes of the coffees.

By introducing refinements in the farming communities’ customary practices and providing ongoing support to improve processes, equipment, and infrastructure, Mokha not Mocha creates opportunities to reveal distinctive sensory qualities in the cup, resulting from the impeccable match between the Yemeni landrace varieties like Typica-Odaini, Typica-Dawairy, and Ja’adi  and the peerless Yemeni terroir.