Yemen, Ismaili Coffee

Sea Island has carefully sourced the very best Yemeni coffees available, produced under the famous ‘White Camel’ label by Ahmed Alhamdani. The availability of this brand is very limited, with each coffee named according to the different areas in which they grow. All White Camel coffee is grown at altitudes of at least 1700 metres above sea level, depending on the region where the coffee is produced, naturally sun-dried on earth drying grounds, and sorted by hand. 

Produced in the Bani Ismail district of Sana’a, at an altitude of 2000 to 2500 metres, Ismaili beans are tiny and rounded, resembling split peas. The cup profile of Ismaili coffee is elegant - softer, gentler, and less powerful than the Matari, but still exceptionally complex with many sweet, fruity layers. 

An important and integral part of coffee’s history, Yemen is the origin of the term ‘Coffea Arabica’ and was the first country in the world to grow coffee commercially all the way back in the 1300’s. Today, most of the coffee grown in Yemen consists of ancient heirloom varietals of Arabica coffee that originally came from Ethiopia and are not grown anywhere else in the world, creating coffees that are unique in taste profile to Yemen. Yemeni coffees are often referred to today as ‘Mocha’ coffees - the word ‘Mocha’ is a derivative of the name of Yemen’s Al-Makha port, through which coffee was historically exported to the rest of the world.

The availability of Yemeni coffee is extremely scarce, and the amount produced decreases year after year, with only a small amount being exported. Due to the lack of rain in this region the coffee plantations need to be irrigated, but the dry air does have the benefit of creating a very small and extremely hard coffee bean.