We were honored to be asked by The Mokha Institute to serve on a panel of cuppers, rating and reviewing all 28 lots selected for the first National Yemen Coffee Auction held on August 31. Each of the coffees were amazing and we were blown away by their quality and intense complexity. While we loved all of them, but there were a few lots that really stood out and lot #2288 was one of our favorites. We decided to partner with Andrew Pautler of Pull & Pour coffee to bid on some of our favorite lots. We won the auction on lot #2288 which was the top scoring lot in the auction. The global auction lasted a few hours & we are so glad Ian woke early to place his bids, come by and thank him & ask him for all of the juicy details on this fruit-bomb of a coffee. We are thrilled to be able to offer this amazingly complex to you and partner with our friend Andrew in the process. This coffee is from the Inaugural National Yemen Coffee Auction which is the first auction in Yemen that gives farmers direct access to the roasters they sell to, while also providing more money for them. Historically, coffee farmers don’t receive any extra money on top of the money they are paid for the ripe cherry, dried cherry or coffee in parchment. In this auction 30% of the proceeds (above what they were paid for the green) go back to the farmer and an additional 35% goes toward project development in the farmer’s community.  The profile of the coffee features bright sweet notes on the front end of the cup where you are hit with notes of Mandarin and Strawberry cream. The body of the coffee balances out with a strong passion fruit note and a savory finish reminiscent of sweet pipe tobacco. We are proud to have been a part of this auction and to start building a relationship with these farmers. Including the farmer of this lot, Ali Ahmad al Khawlani in conjunction with durar coffee in Haraz. Seeing how opportunities like these benefit their lives inspires us to keep doing our thing while making us all realize we live in a global community.