Looking through the annals of coffee history two countries stand out for their massive influence on bringing the world the beloved bean. Ethiopia and Yemen have competing claims as the first nation to make coffee. But while Ethiopia has continued to churn out beans of the highest quality Yemeni coffee has nearly dropped off the map entirely. It is but one side effect of nation’s many armed conflicts.
Since obtaining modern independence in the early 20th century, Yemen has found itself in one form of strife after another. Beginning in 2014, the current war in Yemen is the latest blight on country’s once stirring reputation. Gone are talk of coffee and ancient ruins, violence now being the nation’s most common claim to fame.
One person hoping to change that state-of-affairs is Ameen Ali Alrumaim. His lifelong experience with the Yemeni bean dates to a childhood spent in Haraz.
“Coffee means everything to us. My earliest memories are of my stepmom boiling coffee and drinking it with our breakfast. That’s what you’d call a classic Yemeni morning,” he said.
As a child, he learned firsthand from his grandfather how to harvest coffee. The two of them would pick coffee cherries together and lay them out to dry in the sun.
“I would eat some and they were so sweet, with syrup covering the bean from the inside. That taste has always stuck with me.”
After leaving his village and heading for the capital Sana’a, Alrumaim would first work at coffee shops in 2004. At the time, the city’s coffee shops had a great reputation around the Middle East. But something was not quite right.
“Most of those cafes were bringing coffee from Italy and other places. It was cheaper but didn’t taste as good. Only in 2008, when I started working at The Coffee Trader, was I in a place that served 100% Yemeni coffee, the kind I grew up drinking.”
For years, The Coffee Trader would garner a reputation for serving high quality and good tasting coffee. Despite the owner of the business planning to expand and manufacture coffee in the country itself, Yemen’s bureaucracy would see those dreams ground to a halt.
“They weren’t given the help they needed from the government and were consistently stopped from growing their business.”
After a stint owning a successful coffee shop of his own in the US Embassy, war would force Alrumaim to flee the country after Sana’a fell to the infamous Houthis in 2014. Now in Canada, he’s spent years trying to figure out the best way to bring coffee to North America.
“I tried selling coffee on Amazon Canada and it was extremely expensive. I would have to pay for the coffee to go from Sanaa to Aden, Aden to Cairo, Cairo to Germany, and from Germany to Montreal. It was very frustrating for me,” Alrumaim said.
His drive continues to be fueled by the plight of coffee farmers, who face pressure to plant high yield crops like khat. While chewed in East Africa and Yemen, khat is banned in most of the world including the US and Canada. Doctors have warned against it for years, with research in 2022 showing that it causes cardiovascular cancers and psychotic disorders among other side effects.
Alrumaim added, “If farmers cannot sell their coffee for a fair price, they’ll just cut the coffee trees and start growing khat. They’ll add toxic pesticides to make the plants grow faster but that ultimately kills the soil. It would take years before coffee can be planted again.”
He believes that by teaching farmers how to harvest coffee sustainably and sell them at fair rates , coffee lovers the world over would benefit. Instead of just dreaming, Alrumaim is in the process of trying to bring Harazi beans to the states via a Yemeni style café that makes staples like americano as well as traditional Yemeni fair like qishr.
And he isn’t the only one either. Hamza Nasser, CEO of Haraz Coffee House in Dearborn, Michigan, has long championed the Yemeni bean. Preserving its place in history and culture of the utmost importance to him and his colleagues.
“It’s the original arabica bean,” he told The Clarion. “When it spread all over the world it spread from Yemen. We’re trying to revive its reputation.”
Today, Haraz Coffee House has a presence in two states with plans to expand even further by the end of the year. Their coffee mostly hails from their namesake.
“We bring most of it from Haraz. Sometimes we get other high-quality beans from Khowlan and Bani Matar,” Nasser said.
The Haraz Coffeehouse aims not just to sell coffee but also to teach and spread Yemen’s culture of coffee drinking. His aim of being in 15 states by the end of the year is indicative of Nasser’s ambition.
“Our coffee grows in high altitude areas. They have a lot more caffeine and flavors,” Nasser said. “Whether you’re drinking Java or Guatemalan arabica coffee, they all go back to the Adam and Eve of coffee, the Yemeni bean.”
For far too long has the nation been plagued with violence, corruption, and poverty. People like Alrumaim and Nasser are just a pair from among a swathe of Yemenis trying to make things better. If their plans to share Haraz with the world come to fruition, the lives of many, many people are bound to be sweeter.
(Featured image from Canva)
Written by Ismael David Mujahid, Executive Editor
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