Yemen | Khulani Amer

From Our Importer-

"Khulani" is the name given to heirloom cultivars selected and cultivated in the Khulan Amer district, Sa'ada. Generally, this is a varietal distinction based on regional cultivation, and includes a subset of varietal types that are dispersed across 6 districts in the Sa'ada Governorate. This particular lot comes from a farmers association in the region called the Khulani Coffee Society for Agricultural Development, who's mission has been to improve both quality and productivity for coffee farmers across the surrounding regions by offering technical support and price stability through their relationships with marketing agents. The coffee is collected from small farmers in the Sana'a mountain growing regions of Saqin, Haidan, Joma'ah Razih, Munabbeh, and Ghamer. To get slightly more granular, 222 farmers in total contributed coffee from their farms to this regional blend, who on average have 1000 trees planted on less than 1/2 hectare of land. Coffee is grown at extremely high altitudes, starting at 1400 meters and topping out at 2500 meters above sea level! This lot was secured through Fatoum Muslot, who runs the family coffee business, Pearl of Tehama, started by her father back in the 1950s. They've long exported Yemeni coffee, and since Fatoum has started managing the group, she has worked to implement practices such as more stringent hand sorting and using Ecotact storage bags in order to directly affect their coffee's overall quality. We're quite pleased with the physical condition of both coffees we bought from Fatoum this year, the lack of underripe coffee and shipping in Ecotact liners has really benefitted the resulting cup quality. During their long history in the coffee trade they've forged longstanding connections with farming groups in several growing regions, and because of these connections, are able to buy coffee in a more direct way.  This It's been a few years now since we've picked up Yemeni coffee, not necessarily by choice, but mainly due to the difficulties exporting from a country at war. The situation there is still quite dire, and I'm amazed that anything is making it out of the country.

Flavors span a range of sweet to savory, and of the four Yemeni coffees we bought, it certainly has the most fruited complexity wrapped into the earthy cup. The smells at City+ and Full City roast levels have some raw sugars offset by brown butter hints, raspberry chocolate, spices, and a whiff of toasted pumpkin seeds. I really enjoyed the interplay of pungent caramelized sugars and savory nutty smells in the wet aroma, accented by a pistachio nut note, and subtle smell of dried fruit leather. The base flavor profile has this delicious fruited bittersweetness that's a little rustic, flanked by a moderate earthiness and interesting hint spice accents. The fruits laid out at City+ include dried apple, dried goji berry, and this powdery fruit aspect like banana protein shake.