Yemen Mocca Hawari

In the Haraz Mountains west of Sana'a, coffee has grown on hand-stacked stone terraces for six centuries. The town of Hawari lends its name to a local heirloom that ripens slowly in thin, arid air. This is some of the oldest cultivated coffee on Earth, still tended much as it always has been.

OriginYemen RegionHaraz Mountains Elevation1,800-2,400m ProcessNatural (Sun-Dried) VarietyHeirloom (Hawari) The Source

Six Centuries on the Terraces

Yemen holds a singular place in coffee history. The 15th-century port of Mocha gave the drink its first global trade route, and the steep highlands behind it have produced coffee ever since. The Haraz range, rising sharply from the plains west of Sana'a, is among the most storied of these growing areas, with farming families working narrow terraces carved into the rock generations ago.

Trees here climb between 1,800 and 2,400 meters, where cold nights and intense daytime sun stretch maturation across much of the year. That slow ripening, a hallmark of high-altitude coffee, concentrates sugars and builds the dense, layered character Yemeni coffee is known for. The Hawari heirloom, native to its namesake town, is one of many ancestral varieties that have adapted to this dry, demanding terroir over hundreds of years.

The Craft

Sun, Stone, and Patience

Water is scarce in Haraz, so the coffee is processed naturally. Cherries are hand-picked, sorted, then laid in a single layer to dry slowly in the full mountain sun on raised beds and rooftops. The fruit stays on the seed through drying, lending the cup its deep sweetness and signature wine-like edge. It is a method shaped by climate rather than fashion, and learning how it differs from washed lots is worth a read on our guide to natural and washed processing.

We roast this lot to City+, a level that honors the bean's chocolate weight while keeping its fruit and acidity intact. A darker roast would flatten the very qualities that make Yemeni coffee distinct, so we stop short and let the origin speak.

Milk Chocolate Blueberry Plum Malt BodyFull AcidityWine-like The Cup

Chocolate With a Wild Fruit Streak

The cup opens with milk chocolate and a malty richness, then turns toward dried blueberry and plum as it cools. Acidity reads more like wine than citrus, soft and rounded rather than sharp. The body is full and lingering, the kind of complex, old-world profile that rewards slow sipping and keeps pulling you back for the next cup.

Find Your Fix

This coffee shines as a pour-over on a Chemex or V60, where its fruit and chocolate layers stay distinct. It also pulls a dense, syrupy shot as espresso for those who want the body up front. Explore the rest of our coffee beans and find your fix.

Roasted in small batches at our Virginia Beach roastery.

Packaged in reusable glass mason jars, returned locally for reuse. Solar-roasted.

Virginia Beach, VA