About Us

YEMEN'S COFFEE HISTORY

An Islamic Scholar and Sufi mystic discovers that if he sets a pot of water over his cook fire, and boils the seeds of a certain fruit that grows wild in the hills, the water turns a muddy brown. When he drinks this brew, it lifts his spirit, awakens his senses, and allows him to pray and study through the night. This Monk of Mokha shares his discovery with his brothers and sisters, and before long, this drink becomes prized among the Yemeni people. Coffee starts getting cultivated in the mountain and valley terraces, and shared with pilgrims and traders who visit the country.

For 150 years, starting in the 16th century, Yemen was the exclusive coffee supplier to the entire world. All coffee shipped out of the region via the Port of Mokha, on the Red Sea. Yemen’s unique microclimate and high elevation where coffee grew produced drought-resistant plants that yielded complex coffees with sweet, chocolatey flavors. To imitate Yemeni coffee, many coffee houses would add chocolate to drinks brewed from beans of other origins (hence the term ‘mocha’). It is thought that sometime in the mid-1600’s, an Indian pilgrim smuggled seven green coffee seeds out of the country, and from those seeds, coffee cultivation spread across the planet and grew into a worldwide commodity. Though 90% of the world’s coffee can be genetically traced back to Yemen.

MOKHTAR ALKHANSHALI FOUNDER & CEO

Historian, community organizer, and coffee innovator, Mokhtar Alkhanshali envisions a world where industry empowers rather than exploits, uplifts rather than represses.

Growing up between Brooklyn, San Francisco and Yemen, Mokhtar comes from an ancient lineage of coffee farmers, that traces back to when the world’s first coffee was cultivated in his home province of Ibb over five centuries ago.

In 2013 Mokhtar began focusing on his family’s roots as coffee farmers in Yemen. Seeking to reverse Yemen’s nearly lost art of coffee cultivation, he founded Port of Mokha. Combining his knowledge of specialty coffee production, progressive infrastructure strategy and community organizing, Mokhtar has helped to reverse the declining quality of Yemeni coffee and re-establish it as the one of industries most treasured origins. Best-selling author Dave Eggers’ forthcoming title “The Monk of Mokha” traces Mokhtar’s journey as a social entrepreneur and his harrowing escape from war torn Yemen with his first coffee samples. Mokhtar strives to empower coffee farmers with the knowledge and tools to bring about radical improvements in the quality of their coffees and lives.