Best of Yemen 2025 • Amal & Ishraq Al Ofairi • Natural • SL-28

As the UK's sole winners of the 2025 Best of Yemen auction, we are extremely proud to support Yemen's remarkable coffee farming community and share this exceptional coffee with you.

High in Yemen’s central highlands, the village of Bani Ofair has cultivated coffee for centuries across its rugged terraces, carved into the mountain at 1,800 metres above sea level. Around fifty farming families work these steep slopes, relying on clean water brought up the mountains by hand, to sustain their crops in an increasingly arid climate. Among them are Amal and Ishraq Al-Ofairi, who manage roughly 300 SL28 trees across 25 matrah of land. Amal learned to farm alongside her father and grandfather, while Ishraq now shares the daily labour of pruning, harvesting, and drying. Their work continues a lineage of cultivation that has endured through drought, conflict, and isolation. Amal and Ishraq serve as a living record of Yemen’s coffee heritage.

This lot, an SL28 naturally processed coffee, captures the elegance and vibrancy for which Bani Ofair is celebrated. The variety, renowned for its drought resistance and high-altitude performance, thrives here, producing a cup defined by notes of vibrant fruit, floral aromatics, and deep, structured sweetness. After selective picking, Qima’s team transports the cherries directly from the farm to their central drying facilities. There, the cherries are laid on raised parabolic drying beds for 15-25 days, turned regularly to avoid over-fermentation. Moisture, density, and BRIX readings are monitored throughout to ensure the drying process is consistent. 

Bani Ofair is one of the focus communities in Qima Coffee’s sustainability programme, which provides verified seedlings adapted to Yemen’s challenging terrain and supports the construction of reservoirs and irrigation networks. These initiatives have secured water access for more than 300 residents, helping stabilise local farming livelihoods. For Amal and Ishraq, coffee remains more than an agricultural pursuit - it is an inheritance, a connection to land and community, and their contribution to Yemen’s enduring reputation for producing some of the world’s most spectacular coffees.

Traceability: Amal & Ishraq Al Ofairi < Bani Ofair < Maghrib Ans < Dhamar < Yemen

Process: Natural

Varietal: SL-28

Size: 200g