Yemen Khulani Amer

We’ve secured 100lbs of rare Yemeni coffee!

We’re super excited that we were able to acquire 100lbs of Yemeni coffee from our importing friends at Coffee Shrub. It’s incredible that any coffee is leaving the country, considering what they are going through politically, but here it is! The name “Khulani Amer” refers to the area Khulan Amer in the district of Sa’ada where these heirloom varietals are cultivated. The coffee comes from the Khulani Coffee Society for Agricultural Development which consists of approximately 220 individual small farmers. It is grown at extremely high altitudes of between 1400 and 2500 masl (4600 – 8200 ft) and we think you’ll be impressed by the resulting quality in the cup.
By necessity, all Yemeni coffee is dry-processed (natural process) – water is scarce and the plants survive in almost drought-like conditions but the resulting flavors can be amazing. These coffees exhibit some of my favorite flavor notes. Earthy heaviness but with a rustic fruitiness. The importer highlights notes of dark corn syrup, toasted grain, pumpkin bread, freeze dried fruit, leather, cumin and dark chocolate. Traditionally coffees from Yemen are wildly irregular and inconsistent so we rely on our importers to screen the coffee for us. Coffee Shrub and their exporting partner in Yemen have done an amazing job with these lots. A BIG Thank You to them!  We WILL be taking pre-orders as I suspect this will sell out quickly.

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From Coffee Shrub (importer)- “Khulani” is the name given to heirloom cultivars selected and cultivated in the Khulan Amer district, Sa’ada. Generally, this is a varietal distinction based on regional cultivation, and includes a subset of varietal types that are dispersed across 6 districts in the Sa’ada Governorate. This particular lot comes from a farmers association in the region called the Khulani Coffee Society for Agricultural Development, who’s mission has been to improve both quality and productivity for coffee farmers across the surrounding regions by offering technical support and price stability through their relationships with marketing agents. The coffee is collected from small farmers in the Sana’a mountain growing regions of Saqin, Haidan, Joma’ah Razih, Munabbeh, and Ghamer. To get slightly more granular, 222 farmers in total contributed coffee from their farms to this regional blend, who on average have 1000 trees planted on less than 1/2 hectare of land. Coffee is grown at extremely high altitudes, starting at 1400 meters and topping out at 2500 meters above sea level! This lot was secured through Fatoum Muslot, who runs the family coffee business, Pearl of Tehama, started by her father back in the 1950s. They’ve long exported Yemeni coffee, and since Fatoum has started managing the group, she has worked to implement practices such as more stringent hand sorting and using Ecotact storage bags in order to directly affect their coffee’s overall quality. We’re quite pleased with the physical condition of both coffees we bought from Fatoum this year, the lack of underripe coffee and shipping in barrier bags has really benefitted the resulting cup quality. During their long history in the coffee trade they’ve forged longstanding connections with farming groups in several growing regions, and because of these connections, are able to buy coffee in a more direct way.  It’s been a few years now since we’ve picked up Yemeni coffee, not necessarily by choice, but mainly due to the difficulties exporting from a country at war. The situation there is still quite dire, and I’m amazed that anything is making it out of the country. Read our interview with Fatoum Mouslot from 2020.“