Yemen Sa'adah Khulani

Country: Yemen

Region: Northwestern Yemen, Sa'adah Governorate

Farm: 109 producers organized around Pearl of Tehama

Process: Natural, dried in the fruit on rooftops and raised beds

Variety: Audaini, Dawaery, Tuffahi

Harvest: October-February

Altitude: 1400-2500 metres

Creamy, raspberry, rose, chocolate, cardamum

At once sweet, delicate, juicy, and comforting, we are really excited to share this Yemen Sa'adah Khulani with you. Its subtle complexity offers up floral, berry and light spice notes with cocoa throughout, a pleasant honeyed sweetness and a distinctly creamy body.

This traditional natural coffee is produced in northwest Yemen by 109 small legacy farmers organized around a grower coalition called Khulani Coffee Society for Agricultural Development (KCSAD) and exported by Fatoum Muslot's company Pearl of Tehama. 

The primary goal of KCSAD is to inspire more ambitious farm investments and quality standards in both harvest and post-harvest. The group's primary founding farmers meet regularly to plan outreach campaigns where cultivation techniques are taught, with an emphasis on the economic potential of well-run farms. Since KCSAD's inception, coffee sales and exports have begun to increase across the Sa'adah districts.

Pearl of Tehama is a family business founded in 1970 by Ali Hiba Muslot and now owned by the late Mr. Muslot's daughter, Ms. Fatoum Muslot. Pearl of Tehama is the miller and exporter of KCSAD's coffee. The ongoing civil war in Yemen has displaced over 3 million people and cost many lives; two-thirds of the country is in need of food and medical aid. Though the prolonged conflict has had an overwhelmingly devastating effect on Yemen's international trade, the Muslot family and Pearl of Tehama have devoted themselves to managing and exporting the coffee harvests of those farms and families whom they represent. In an effort to expand the safety net of Yemen's coffee sector, Pearl of Tehama established a consultancy for exporters and other coffee service providers. This initiative has also helped to increase the coffee's availability and competitiveness abroad. Consultants correspond and manage relationships with farmers and customers, prepare technical reports from the field, manage harvest and traceability information, all with the core mission of increasing potential at both ends of the value chain: more quality coffee from Yemen's historic producing territories is available to global buyers.

In Yemen as in many other countries, coffee remains a deep social tradition that brings communities together, even in the midst of adversity and upheaval. The quality of the coffee speaks to the level of trust in relationships along the supply chain - techniques for tending to the land that have been passed down through generations, along with initiatives devised by groups like KCSAD and Pearl of Tehama to promote the potential and safety of coffee farms in Yemen.