The final major influence in the
development of the modern cup of coffee
was the roasting of the bean. A technique
again credited to the alchemical prowess
of the Sufis. The change in which the
coffee bean transformed from a tasteless
pale green seed to a rich black bean of
overwhelming aroma and taste, came to
represent the transformation of the soul
through the influence of Islam and the
deep black shade resplendent of Ka’ba
– the sacred stone of Mecca in Saudi
Arabia.
merchants had their first encounters with
the bitter brew. Today, Mocha isn’t even
a shadow if its former self with many of
its original buildings and docks fallen into
disrepair after the inevitable loss of their
monopoly to the powers of the West. A
detailed account of the state of Mocha
towards the end of its coffee boom was
well made by George Annesley while
exploring the region in 1809;
“The Sufis master operates upon the
base metal of the soul of the disciple
and with the help of the spiritual
methods of Sufism transforms the
base metal into gold” – Anonymous
Sufis Master
By the start of the 16th century coffee was
already well established throughout all
levels of Yemeni society, with archaeological
digs revealing the remains of local Haysi
pottery formed in demitasse style coffee
cups designed for domestic use.
Mocha would be better
remembered for a 200
year trade monopoly over
the sale of coffee.
Despite its popularity, coffee supply
still depended heavily on trade from
Ethiopia as the coffea plant would not be
commercially grown in Yemen until the
1540s. But once the coffee harvest was
established onshore, a new champion
trade port would rise to meet growing
global demand and a new name for the
drink would be born – Mocha.
With coffee having spread throughout
the Red Sea on the back of Islam, the
role of the new coffee house would be
essential in offering a venue for Arabian
men to enjoy a hot brew (indications
reveal it was more likely qish’r) in a setting
of intellectual sobriety. Yet coffee would
require one final major player before it
could be introduced to the Western world
– a port called Mocha.
Initially regarded as a centre for astronomy
and architecture, the Yemeni port of Mocha
would be better remembered for a 200 year
trade monopoly over the sale of coffee. It
was here that Ethiopian coffee was first
widely traded and also here where western
46
“Its appearance from the sea is,
tolerably handsome, as all the
buildings are white-washed, and the
minarets of the three mosques rise to a
considerable height […] The moment,
however, that the traveller passes the
gates, these pleasing ideas are put to
flight by the filth that abounds in every
street […] by the gradual decay of the
deserted habitations which once
filled them”.
By 1520 Yemen was now under the
control of the great Ottoman Empire
and Mocha (nearing its first century in
the coffee trade) was still dependent on
harvests from the Kaffa & Harar Provinces
of Ethiopia. With the influence of their
new Ottoman masters came new trade
commitments throughout the Turkish
Empire. As such, Yemen began searching
for suitable onshore plantation sites to
maintain supply.
Unfortunately the neighbouring land
surrounding Mocha consists primarily
of sand dunes and over salted soil from
which only date palms could grow. By
the time the West had made their first
direct coffee trade with Yemen at the start
of the 17th century, three quarters of all
coffee produced in the country came
from a fly blown market town 150km
north of Mocha called Bayt Al-Faqih
(more unlovingly referred to by English
merchants as Bettlefuckee”). Today a
town trading primarily in weaving and
jewellery, the Bayt Al-Faqih of the 1600s
consisted of only a few stone built houses
surrounded by straw huts on a key trade
route through the dry semi-desert coastal
Tihamah plains. An unlikely centre to
what would evolve into one of the world’s
most traded commodities. Despite the
town’s lack of vacation appeal, it holds
records of trading with merchants as far
afield as Persia, Morocco, India, Turkey
and even early Europeans.
For the emerging global powers of the
West however, coffee didn’t hold much
commercial interest until the beginning
of the Spice Race at the start of the
17th century. Despite the emergence
of merchant powerhouses such as the
English East India Company (aka ‘The
Company’) and their trans channel rival
the Dutch East India Company (aka
‘V.O.C.’ – Vereenigde Ooste-Indische
Compagnie), coffee wouldn’t begin
trading with mainland Europe in any
earnest until the opening of the first
Western coffee house (café) in Oxford,
England in 1651.
Prior to The Company having records
of trade in Mocha as far back as
1609, coffee was only exchanged as a
secondary commodity. It was the trade
in spices such as cloves, pepper and
nutmeg which paid for their Empiric
expansion.
Almost a decade later however, the East
India Company became the first western
nation to directly trade in coffee from
Mocha to their partners in India and
Persia. At a time when only an estimated
30% of English males were literate, the
following decade would see Company
merchants trading in coffee under a
myriad of various names from coffe, coffa,
cowha to covha, cahoo, cowhe or just
simply mocha.
Around 1616, while the English East India
Company were busy investing in relations
direct with Mocha, their chief rival the
V.O.C. were, as always, thinking one step
ahead having acquired a (somewhat
suspect) live coffee plant. Despite the
dedication needed to mother the plant
for a number of decades before any
seeds could be cultivated, the Dutch
were the first to establish an independent
plantation outside of Yemen, planting
seeds in their new colonies on Ceylon