Yemeni Coffees

#1: Post by **Boldjava** » June 10th, 2020, 5:27 pm

Going to put a toe into the water and start a thread on Yemeni coffee so I quit clogging up the Greens Alert thread with posts on Yemen stuff.

Day 8 on Royal's Al Qafr Crown Jewel: https://royalcoffee.com/product/cj1337/

Really opened up finally. Vacpot prep, 42 grams to 22 ounces finished liquid coffee.

Prior to today, it was strictly a fig bomb. Very narrow and very intense. Now the light floral is on the front of the tongue at the beginning of the cup. Peach ? <stone fruit of some sort> as you contemplate the loss of Major League Baseball in the Heartland this year and figs, definitely, if you need a cookie to deal with another day of sequestering thanks to COViD19.

They call it vanilla. OK, I will call it smooth and balanced (maple syrup light captures it as it has a sweet element as well). Whatever that flavor is, it lassoes the rest of the cup and holds it together. Not a spectacular cup but a $10 Yemen if you give it time to open up. My problem is that I am so impatient I drain my 230g by day 7 typically which is unfair to a Yemeni coffee.

#2: Post by **Rickpatbrown** » June 10th, 2020, 6:09 pm

I just ordered my first Yemen last from Burman last week. 3lbs mocca hawari https://burmancoffee.com/product/coffee ... ca-hawari/.

I'm looking forward to giving it a good. I can't say that I've ever had decent Yemen coffee. I've hardly had any Yemen at all.

Fingers crossed!

Awesome picture, btw

#3: Post by **JohnB.** » June 10th, 2020, 6:34 pm

Boldjava wrote:
They call it vanilla. OK, I will call it smooth and balanced (maple syrup light captures it as it has a sweet element as well). Whatever that flavor is, it lassoes the rest of the cup and holds it together. Not a spectacular cup but a $10 Yemen if you give it time to open up. My problem is that I am so impatient I drain my 230g by day 7 typically which is unfair to a Yemeni coffee.

You should really try it as espresso. Today's shot was a mouthful of sweet peach/fig fruit. Next roast I'm going to take it a few pops into 2C and see what that brings out.

#4: Post by **GC7** » June 10th, 2020, 6:43 pm

Good timing Dave. I have the last of this coffee at day 3 post roast waiting another week to try it. I'm planning mostly espresso as my new profiling toy has me playing to see what it can do.

I also have the Haraaz Fresh AA+ at 10 days tomorrow waiting for the bag to open. I will pull shots tomorrow using my old method ( 202* 17.5 gm in and 32-33 gm final) and a slayer profile. Based on previous experience I think it will be better in 4-5 days.

#5: Post by **GC7** » June 10th, 2020, 6:51 pm

JohnB. wrote: You should really try it as espresso. Today's shot was a mouthful of sweet peach/fig fruit. Next roast I'm going to take it a few pops into 2C and see what that brings out.

I have a week to wait on this but my roast was probably 5* before second crack but well after first was finished. I slowed the roast down with first crack coming at 9:40 and ending at 11:40. Do you have recommendations for temperature and yields?

#6: Post by **bicktrav** » June 10th, 2020, 7:42 pm

This is an awesome thread! A few years back, I sprung for a cup of Yemen Port of Mokha at Blue Bottle, tagged, amazingly, at $16. It goes down as the best coffee I've ever had -- really, it was staggeringly good. Since then, I've been trying to replicate it at home with suboptimal results. I recently purchased a couple of Yemen offerings from Coffee Bean Corral (a Hawari and Matari). They were good, but nowhere near that Port of Mokha I keep chasing. I also tried another from Sweet Maria's that was fine but not extraordinary, and one from a company called Al Mokha that was similarly okay. Most of the Yemens I've roasted have been finicky -- unsteady RoRs, stubborn chaff -- and the flavors tend to be muted. What's odd, though, is that I can taste the potential in each of them. There's leather and berry and pipe tobacco and some wild forest notes, but the flavors land like music filtered through foam earplugs: terribly subdued. Maybe that's because I haven't been resting them long enough. Until this thread, I didn't realize you should wait a week or more before brewing. Anyway, I'd love to nail a great Yemen, so I'll be following eagerly!

June 10th, 2020, 8:08 pm

bicktrav wrote:...I've been trying to replicate it at home with suboptimal results...Anyway, I'd love to nail a great Yemen, so I'll be following eagerly!

Others have had good luck with this one. It fell apart a bit for me but take mine as an outlier. Order some and give it a try. https://www.roastmasters.com/yemenred.html

#8: Post by **bicktrav** » June 10th, 2020, 9:13 pm

Boldjava wrote:Others have had good luck with this one. It fell apart a bit for me but take mine as an otherlier. Order some and give it a try. https://www.roastmasters.com/yemenred.html

Just ordered it! Thanks for the tip. I'll report back here after I roast. How long should I wait after roasting before trying this one?

#9: Post by **JohnB.** » June 10th, 2020, 9:28 pm

GC7 wrote:I have a week to wait on this but my roast was probably 5* before second crack but well after first was finished. I slowed the roast down with first crack coming at 9:40 and ending at 11:40. Do you have recommendations for temperature and yields?

So far shots have been pulled between 198*F & 201*F with the cooler temps on the Bosco/higher on the Speedster. Today's shot was pulled at 201* with a 17g dose & approx 28g yield. I shoot for a 3 minute stretch when I'm roasting for espresso.

June 10th, 2020, 9:37 pm

bicktrav wrote:Just ordered it! Thanks for the tip. I'll report back here after I roast. How long should I wait after roasting before trying this one?

Experience tells me to wait 7 days on a Yemeni (rarely happens due to inner Impatient Child). A friend said this coffee sang best for him at 20 days. Will never happen in my house.