Yemeni Coffee Tasting

VERY IMPORTANT: Please arrive and complete your tasting within the 5p-7p two-hour window. We request that you plan for about a 30-minute experience so that other attendees can also sit down and enjoy their tasting. A maximum of TWO GUESTS can share one ticket.

We just got our paws on something truly special — an anaerobic natural microlot from Yemen! The Sharqi Haraz Anaerobic comes to us through our long-time partners @royal.coffee.inc who in turn have a long-standing relationship with one of the best exporters on the ground in Yemen, the family-owned and woman-led Pearl of Tehama. Only 1,000 pounds of this coffee landed in Royal’s California warehouse, gathered from 200 smallholder farmers in the Eastern Haraz region of Yemen. Harazi coffees are pure heirloom Yemeni cultivars that are not found anywhere else in the world. High-grade Yemeni coffee is already spectacular in itself but the unusually modern anaerobic processing of this microlot has resulted in an even more intensely flavored coffee while ensuring that the coffee still tastes very clean and not over-fermented.

In our hands, this coffee is intensely fruity and sweet up front, reminiscent of chocolate covered cherries, balanced by just a hint of acidity that tastes like red grapes or cacao nibs. The coffee is quite full-bodied even at slightly lower doses so it never tastes weak or too tea-like. This coffee’s complexity is truly off the charts and we often find ourselves tasting something new or different in every sip.

Coffee of this quality and provenance does not come cheap. The cost at our end of the value chain is a testament to both how good this coffee is and also the great difficulty of even getting it out into the world from a country in the throes of a decade-long civil war.

That being said, it has always been our mission to highlight the best of what is possible in coffee even if it means that we’re just covering our costs. In that spirit, we invite you to join us this Saturday Dec. 13, 5p-7p for a special tasting event. Each $50 ticket includes three preparations of the Sharqi Haraz: an espresso, cortado, and pourover. We will also serve baklava and knafeh as an accompaniment. Bags will be available at a special discounted price after the event.

We hope you can join us for this end-of-year treat!