Beyond Bombs and Bloodshed

Transcription

Beyond
Bombs and Bloodshed
R esto r ing Yemen’s Pl ace
in Spec ialty Co ffee
by Emily Puro
E
thiopia was the official “Portrait Country” of the 27th annual
Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) Event in
April, but in many ways, Ethiopia’s neighbor and fellow legend of
coffee history—Yemen—stole the show.
A village in the Haraz area of western Yemen. | photo courtesy Mocha Mill
22
roast
A farmer in western Yemen’s Hayma area. | photo courtesy Mocha Mill
continued on page 24
Mokhtar Alkhanshali (plaid shirt) visits the Roowad
Cooperative in Hayma. | photo courtesy Mocha Mill
S e p t e m b e r | Oc t o b e r 2 0 15
23
BEYOND BOMBS AND BLOODSHED | Restoring Yemen’s Place in Specialty Coffee
(continued)
Much of the buzz was generated by two Americans
who risked their lives escaping the escalating violence
in Yemen to attend the conference, bringing samples of
Yemeni coffee to share with attendees. When the airport
in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, was bombed shortly before
they were scheduled to leave, the two men, Mokhtar
Alkhanshali, a Yemeni-American who lives in San
Francisco, and Andrew Nicholson, a Texan now living in
Yemen, drove seven hours to the Port of Mocha, convinced
a local fishing boat captain to take them to Djibouti—a
harrowing five-hour crossing on the Red Sea—then flew to
Kenya, their respective hometowns, and finally the SCAA
Event in Seattle.
Talk of their adventure quickly spread. Alkhanshali
was interviewed by the BBC, NPR, CNN, Al Jazeera, and
other media outlets, and was recognized by passersby, an
Uber driver and others. Some began referring to him as
“The Indiana Jones of Coffee.”
And while the story of this daring escape drew crowds
to a breakfast and a cupping featuring Alkhanshali, who
owns the export company Mocha Mill, based in Oakland,
California, and to the booth Nicholson manned for his
Alkhanshali (foreground) tours the largest coffee nursery in Yemen, in the city of Ibb.
photo courtesy Mocha Mill
24
roast
Yemen-based mill and export company, Rayyan Mill, it
was the coffee many were talking about when they left.
Supporting Yemen’s
Coffee Growers
Yemen holds a special place in coffee
history, long regarded as the first country
in which coffee was cultivated, and home
to Mocha, thought to be the jumping off
point from which arabica coffee was spread
throughout the world.
The coffee grown in Yemen is unique
in many ways. A 2013 report by the United
States Agency for International Development
(USAID), titled Rediscovering Coffee in Yemen:
Updating the coffee value chain and a marketing
strategy to reposition Yemen in the international
coffee markets, details a number of factors
that contribute to the origin’s appeal.
These include: “(1) The existence of unique
heirloom varieties, resulting in the ability of
the Yemeni coffee trees to yield unparalleled
flavor profiles; (2) Excellent elevations,
Alkhanshali (right) with the director of the coffee nursery in Ibb. | photo courtesy Mocha Mill
25
(continued)
which can exceed 2,000 meters (6,562 feet); (3) Centuries-
is leading the coffee segment of a five-year project
coffee; and (4) Challenging growing conditions, resulting
in Yemen, funded by USAID and Land O’Lakes
in stressed coffee beans.”
International Development. The project, dubbed
While there are a number of distinct microclimates in
Crops (CASH), is focused on developing high-value
different regions, average rainfall in the country is only 167
agriculture to address food insecurity in Yemen, one
millimeters annually. This compares with 848 millimeters
of the world’s poorest countries. CQI’s main goals
in Ethiopia and 630 millimeters in Kenya, according
include enhancing coffee productivity and quality
to data from the World Bank Group, an international
differentiation in the country.
launched in early 2014, the nonprofit began training
“Yemeni coffees have become resistant to drought. The
growers on best agricultural practices and cupping,
coffee tree is stressed from lack of water, and that added
and began working to develop the specialty market
stress on the beans creates more complexity.”
for Yemeni coffee in the United States and abroad.
Unfortunately, the escalation in military actions
naturally—dried in the cherry—which adds to its unique
earlier this year forced CQI to suspend its work
flavor. Finally, says Alkhanshali, the terraced hills and
in Yemen, as USAID shifted its efforts toward
mountaintop villages, built for defensive purposes, provide
humanitarian aid.
the ideal balance of sun and shade. But while experts agree
roast
During its first year on the project, which
Because the country is so dry, says Alkhanshali,
This lack of water also means coffee is processed
26
Competitive Agriculture Systems for High-Value
Yemen, creating a rich diversity of coffee varieties grown in
organization working to end poverty.
A coffee grower in the Bani Ismail area. | photo courtesy Rayyan Mill
Currently, the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI)
old traditions in the cultivation and processing of the
In light of this, CQI has turned its attention to
Yemeni coffee holds extraordinary appeal, low productivity
developing specialty markets for Yemeni coffee, but
and a lack of consistency have forced the origin out of the
Alkhanshali, 27, and Nicholson, 37, have continued
specialty coffee spotlight for many years.
Alkhanshali uses a traditional Yemeni scale to evaluate coffee in a farmer’s storage room.
27
their work in country. Nicholson returned
to Sana’a—where he lives with his wife
and three children—even before the airport
resumed operations. (He spent about a week
in Djibouti waiting for the airport to reopen
before arranging passage on a livestock
boat headed to Mocha.) Alkhanshali travels
frequently to market Yemeni coffee, but he
plans to return to work with growers and
others later this year.
(continued)
A Focus on Consistency
There are many barriers to the success of
Yemeni specialty coffee. A lack of water
and subsequent low productivity are
obvious concerns. The 2013 USAID report
referenced earlier states, “The official
average production by smallholders is 550
kilograms per hectare. However, interviews
Alkhanshali relies on his heritage to
guys,’ that wouldn’t work. I wear a dagger. I
with various local farmers lower this
Even before the coffee goes to mill,
estimate to around 350 kilograms per
however, quality control systems must
develop a bond with Yemeni growers that
wear my tribal turban. My tribe comes with
hectare.” This compares with yields of 700
be in place. For many years, growers
would be difficult for a non-Yemeni to
me. I actually speak Arabic a little better than
to 800 kilograms per hectare in Ethiopia,
typically have not differentiated
build.
English.”
according to a 2015 report from the U.S.
between ripe and unripe cherries
Department of Agriculture Foreign
during picking. A key first step in
he says. “I spent months doing this, to
Agricultural Service.
improving quality was to convey the
get them to understand what I want to
importance of picking only the ripe,
do. If I came in there wearing pants and
navigate, growing areas are remote, and
red cherries. This meant bridging
my hair parted to the side, saying, ‘Hi
many farmers have replaced coffee plants
the cultural divide, and providing
with khat, a mild stimulant that is legal
incentives for farmers to pick
and widely used throughout the country.
selectively.
In addition, the terrain is difficult to
“Most of my work is in khat sessions,”
He is also careful to frame instructions in
culturally relevant ways.
“I don’t go there and say, ‘You’ve been
doing it this way for 20 years, but you’re
Khat grows quickly and requires no
processing, making it an attractive option
for growers who have not seen great value
in coffee in recent decades.
The obstacle most often cited by coffee
professionals, however, is inconsistent
quality.
“While you can get beautiful coffees
from Yemen,” says Sean Marshall, a
founding partner, with Nicholson,
in Rayyan Mill, “they’re horribly
inconsistent because the milling process
and the scrutiny at the mill level is
not very good. It’s even worse at the
agricultural level, depending on where
it’s grown.”
It was this high level of inconsistency
that convinced Nicholson and Marshall
their idea to open a modern mill in Yemen
had merit. This will be the fourth season
the company has been milling coffee for
its own operations and other exporters.
Most mills in Yemen use equipment
intended for wheat, rice or other grains
to hull dry cherry, Nicholson explains.
Because the grinders are relatively rough,
and because the reconstituted hulls can be
sold at the local market, the dried cherries
are soaked in water before milling. Using
equipment designed specifically for coffee
cherry hulling—including a destoner,
huller, catador separator, screen grader
and densimetric gravity table—Rayyan
is able to mill coffee without moistening
the cherries.
“After hulling and [machine] sorting,
we finish by hand sorting,” Nicholson
explains. “We also cater the processes
to each lot. In Yemen, lots can be quite
different and some need extra passes on
some of the machines, or even double or
triple hand sorting.”
28
roast
A Cultural
Connection
As a Yemeni-American, Alkhanshali
is uniquely qualified to bridge the
cultural divide. His parents were born
in Yemen, and he grew up immersed
in the culture. As a child, he visited
Yemen frequently and helped his
grandmother pick coffee.
A few years ago, he met coffee
consultant Willem Boot, of Boot
Coffee in Mill Valley, California. Boot,
who had been working with CQI in
Yemen to produce the 2013 USAID
report mentioned previously, became
a mentor to Alkhanshali, teaching
him about the coffee industry and
encouraging him to become a Q
Grader. (Alkhanshali is currently the
only Q Grader working in Yemen and
is, in fact, the first arabica Q Grader of
Arab descent.)
On his first coffee-focused trip
to Yemen, in May 2014, Alkhanshali
visited 32 coffee-growing regions—
using USAID and CQI reports, as well
as old Arab textbooks to guide him—
bringing back samples to cup with
Boot.
“I kind of retraced the old Mocha
route,” he says, “and I found incredible
places on my journey.”
At the end of 2014, he partnered
with the nonprofit Small and Micro
Enterprise Promotion Services to take
16 Yemeni farmers to Ethiopia, “to
learn better agricultural practices from
their Ethiopian brothers and sisters
across the Red Sea,” he says.
29
(continued)
doing it wrong. Here’s the right way to do it,’” he
explains. Knowing that picking ripe cherries and
using organic fertilizers are bygone traditions in
Yemen, he asks growers to recall their parents and
grandparents talking about picking the red cherry
“like a ruby on a tree,” he says, then he tells them,
“We need to go back to what our grandparents used
to do.”
Alkhanshali also hosts tasting sessions to
educate growers about coffee quality and promote a
sense of pride in their product. It’s typically the first
time they’ve tasted their coffee roasted to specialty
standards—and brewed in a Chemex—he says. When
villagers chose their own coffee over an Ethiopian
Andrew Nicholson (left) works with Rayyan Mill staff in Yemen to adjust settings on the
densimetric table for a new microlot. | photo courtesy Rayyan Mill
and an Indonesian in one blind cupping, he recalls,
“There was so much pride in their eyes.”
“When the farmers learn we’re selling coffee
from their community, and we’re selling it by itself
and telling their story, they love that,” Nicholson
adds. “They know Yemen was famous around the
world before and they want to bring it back.”
Providing Price Incentives
Offering price incentives to encourage quality
differentiation is another major hurdle.
“A significant portion of Yemen’s coffees are
sold into Saudi Arabia, which has an affinity for
the country and its plight,” says Andrew Hetzel,
a project consultant for CQI focusing on market
development for Yemeni coffee. “They pay top dollar
for the origin but are not as discriminating about
quality as specialty green buyers.”
“If you’ve ever had Saudi coffee,” adds
Alkhanshali, “it’s just ginger, saffron, sugar, and a
Ali Al-Hajary, deputy manager of Rayyan Mill, on a trip to visit Yemeni coffee growers.
photo courtesy Rayyan Mill
little bit of coffee, so it doesn’t matter how bad the
coffee is. You’re not going to taste it.”
To address this, Alkhanshali established his
company, Mocha Mill, with a commitment to
buying quality Yemeni coffee at a higher price than
the growers were getting elsewhere. In addition
to the Saudi market, he notes, growers often sell
to predatory lenders who offer a lower price preharvest, when farmers are desperate for money to
feed their families. To address this, he has begun
providing interest-free, pre-harvest loans, along
with his commitment to buy the cherries at a higher
price. (He is currently paying $6 per kilogram for
dried coffee cherries.) This hasn’t endeared him to
the local loan sharks—he and his tribesmen have
exchanged gunfire several times, he says—but it has
Andrew Nicholson (left) and Sean Marshall, co-founders of Rayyan Mill, representing the
company at the SCAA Event in April. | photo courtesy Rayyan Mill
30
roast
endeared him to the growers.
31
BEYOND BOMBS AND BLOODSHED
(continued)
“Mokhtar’s company has financed three weddings in our
village,” says one farmer from the Roowad cooperative in the
Hayma area of western Yemen’s Sana’a province, “and he has
helped many of us get out of debt by offering us microloans
without any interest.”
Introducing Modern Processes
Modernizing drying methods also has been a focus for
Alkhanshali and others working to improve coffee quality
and consistency in Yemen. He worked with the Roowad
cooperative to build Yemen’s first modern drying beds, and
provided moisture analyzers and microfinancing for additional
improvements.
And although Alkhanshali and Nicholson are both
exporters, they often work together to maximize their efforts.
“Andrew has the best coffee mill in Yemen,” says
Alkhanshali. “He’s the only one who is dry-milling coffee.
We’re the only ones who are cupping coffee in Yemen.”
“The biggest thing is clean coffee,” adds Nicholson. “That’s
taken us working at the mill, working on processes, training,
moving to GrainPro and jute bags, but also at the farm level,
Alkhanshali shows growers the difference between ripe and unripe
cherries. | photos courtesy Mocha Mill
helping farmers understand what the specialty coffee industry
wants. What normally happens with the coffee in Yemen, even
really beautiful, delicious, unique microlots, is they get mixed
in a big pile with coffee from all over the country and even
other countries.”
This focus on microlots and traceability is finding a positive
reception from roasters around the world.
“We’ve had a great response not just in the United States,”
says Nicholson, “but also in Australia, South Korea, Japan,
China and Europe.”
During the first two years of operation, Rayyan Mill
exported less than 6 tons of green coffee, as Nicholson focused
on developing relationships with farmers and suppliers
in Yemen. Last year, that increased to nearly 13 tons, with
additional orders the company was unable to fill using existing
capital. This year, with increased capital and marketing,
Nicholson expects to export between 30 and 45 tons. The
company’s current capacity, he says, is about 72 tons annually.
Alkhanshali expects to export between 7 and 16 tons of highTop: Alkhanshali (right) uses a Chemex to brew coffee for growers in
western Yemen’s Utmah district. Bottom: Cupping Yemeni coffee at Boot
Coffee in Mill Valley, California. | photos courtesy Mocha Mill
32
roast
quality coffee—with SCAA cupping scores of 90 or higher—this
year.
33
(continued)
A village in Yemen’s Haraz region. | photo courtesy Mocha Mill
Even as the war on terror rages on, Alkhanshali and
Nicholson are looking toward the next phase in their quest to
return Yemen to specialty coffee prominence. They hope to
open a cupping lab in Yemen adhering to SCAA standards and
train cuppers to evaluate, roast and brew coffee. They’ll use
money generated through the lab to fund drying beds, moisture
analyzers, workshops and other improvements for growers.
This year, for the first time, Yemeni farmers told Alkhanshali
and Nicholson they wanted to plant more coffee. This is a huge
accomplishment, says Nicholson, “because they normally plant
khat or some other types of trees, because that makes more
money than the coffee traditionally has, but now they see the
coffee is doing well for them.”
Farmers stand with a shipment of coffee bound for Rayyan Mill. The coffee had
to be held for two months before transport to the mill, because of the violence
in surrounding areas. | photo courtesy Rayyan Mill
Living with Danger
and Uncertainty
While their swashbuckling journey from Sana’a to Seattle drew
widespread awe at the SCAA Event in April, both Alkhanshali
and Nicholson point out that brushes with danger are not
uncommon.
“That whole story of getting to the SCAA,” says Nicholson,
“we have two or three stories like that every year. We’ve just
learned to work with the people and work around the politics.”
“What’s been really hard,” he adds, “is getting the resources
we need to Yemen because people are so afraid.”
“This has been happening a long time,” agrees Alkhanshali.
“The Arab Spring, I think in some regards, was worse. They close
the airports; they open them. They close the ports; they open
them.”
In addition to exchanging gunfire with predatory lenders,
Alkhanshali recounts no less than 11 tribal ambushes during his
Alkhanshali enjoys a cup of coffee at a cafe in the old city of Sana’a.
34
roast
time in Yemen.
35
(continued)
“That’s when you turn a corner and a bunch of people
come out of nowhere, and they’re looking for someone from a
certain tribe,” he says. “They ask for your ID and they come up
with rifles. It’s pretty frightening.”
His most horrific story occurred about a week before his
journey to Seattle in April. He was trying to leave the country
on a ship out of Aden, a port city in southwestern Yemen,
when he was accosted on the street, blindfolded, his arms
bound, and thrown into the back of a pickup truck. Before he
managed to escape, he overheard one of his assailants talking
about access between Mocha and Djibouti, which sparked the
idea to leave the country via the Port of Mocha.
While Nicholson’s stories are less harrowing, he has been
living in Yemen with his American wife and three children,
now 10, 8 and 4 years old, since late 2011. The day he and his
partners met with the Yemeni government to discuss their
plans for building a mill, he says, “that was the first day of
Arab Spring.” Having lined up investors in the United States
before unrest swept the region, he and his partners returned to
their backers and explained the uncertainty moving forward.
The investors gave them carte blanche to proceed or pull out at
their discretion.
“I said, ‘We’ve already been talking to farmers. I can’t in
good conscience let them down,’” he recalls.
“I feel like I give a lot of hope,” agrees Alkhanshali, “so I
have to go back.”
A Warm Reception
Roasters and cuppers confirm that the work Alkhanshali and
Nicholson have been doing to supply consistently high-quality
coffee from Yemen—coffee that highlights the unique flavor
profiles for which the origin has long been celebrated—is
paying off.
Winston Harrison, head roaster and green buyer at Crema
Coffee Roasters in Nashville, Tennessee, has purchased a
few bags of Yemeni coffee from Rayyan Mill for the past few
seasons.
“It’s a unique thing we all look forward to every year,
because they’re head-turningly different from every other
origin,” he says. “I often feel like drinking a good Yemeni
coffee is more like drinking a good bourbon [whiskey]. It has
a level of spice and fruit and sweetness to it that’s entirely
Top: A grower in the Hayma area. Bottom left: Alkhanshali evaluates coffee. Bottom right: Alkhanshali tests modern raised drying bed prototypes in Ibb.
photos courtesy Mocha Mill
different from anything else we’re able to put on the table.”
As part of a CASH pilot trade program, Philadelphia-based
36
roast
Red Sea,” he continues, “… the fact that we have intimate knowledge
highly publicized Mocha-to-SCAA adventure, have provided rich
of something going on in Yemen that’s not wars and bombing, I
Washington, D.C., in April to showcase Yemeni coffee for an
marketing opportunities for Yemeni coffee.
think people really take to that.”
audience of lawmakers and coffee aficionados. After the event,
Top: Another view of a village in Yemen’s Haraz region. Center: The old city of
Sana’a. Bottom: Children in a village in northwestern Yemen. | photos courtesy
Mocha Mill
News coverage of the ongoing conflict in Yemen, and the
La Colombe Coffee Roasters partnered with CQI on an event in
“We are from Texas, and Texas has a reputation for having
“When I do my presentations,” says Alkhanshali, “most of it’s
La Colombe put the coffee up for sale for $68 per pound. By the
politically charged opinions on places in the Middle East, but we
not even about the coffee. It’s about the people and the history and
end of May, it was nearly sold out. (Rayyan Mill’s wholesale
have had a very good response,” says Marshall. In addition to being
the culture of Yemen. I want people to change their mindset about
price for green coffee ranges from $16 to $24 per kilogram,
a partner in Rayyan Mill, he owns a roasting company, Fusion
Yemen. As opposed to it being drones and airstrikes, I want it to be a
according to Nicholson, while Mocha Mill prices range from
Bean, and a cafe, Southside Espresso, both in Houston. “Besides
bridge between something we all know and love, and that’s coffee.”
$30 to $150 per kilogram, according to Alkhanshali.)
the fact that there’s this crazy Indiana Jones guy going across the
37

Beyond Bombs and Bloodshed

Transcription

Similar documents

Open living room

Cooperative Information - Ethiopian Fine Coffees

Professors at Kaldi`s Getting Coffee

Melitta #4 filters

Overview Brochure

Coopro Sanvito R.L.

bosque nublado - Intelligentsia Coffee

Dazbog brothers perk up at

North West Vending Bolero

Nescafé Espresso Instant Coffee Tin Features