In the 1300's, coffee immigrated from Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, to Yemen. It was tightly guarded by the Arabs for many years, until a Dutch trader's wife used her wiles to obtain a coffee plant, and it made its way to the Netherlands, and from there to the rest of the world.
Coffee in Yemen is grown by families, each of which have several coffee bushes. They harvest it, consolidate, and haul it by foot or animal to the nearest town, and from there it is taken to the city. Because of this, it is not a uniform crop; variations abound, due to growing practices, altitude, and so on. It is also grown chemical-free, due to the poverty level of the growers. There are lots of 'goodies' in this coffee: grains, popcorn, nails, rocks, and I've heard tell of bullets being found, which makes for exciting roasting if you miss pulling it out.
Yemen is really deep and earthy, with flavors of tobacco, tanned leather, cacao, and some wild red berry flavors at a lighter roast. It's difficult to roast, as the inconsistencies cause it to roast unevenly, and some beans can be much farther along in the roast than others, due to different bean density.
It makes a highly robust cup of drip, and a divine cup of espresso. I pulled a few shots of the sample I received, and it was very thick, almost gooey, and sweet, with a very rounded depth and acidity to it. I need to play around more, but I think I can make the red berry flavors more prominent. I've always been a huge fan of Yemen, and I'm really excited to finally have a very small amount here (even more so at the prospect of cooking off a bullet in my roaster!!!)!
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