How many coffees have you tasted that were grown on the terraced mountainsides of Yemen? Yemen is often described as the place where coffee really came of age. For hundreds of years, Yemen produced coffee of incredible quality and exported it from the reknown port of Mocha all over the known world. Today, it is no longer regarded as the powerhouse it once was - most of the coffee farms in Yemen are small and wild. But those farms are also generational and ancient - some of them have been tended by Yemeni coffee farmers longer than our own country has been considered a sovereign nation. One of those such farms is named Ghalib Alhamasi, and it is managed by the farmer whose name you see on this beautiful black-label release, Ghalib Al Hammashi. Ghalib's plantation has been in operation for over 300 years; it was started by and inherited from his ancestors. Known as a "leader of the land" by other members of the Wadi Seil village where the farm resides, Ghalib is regarded with a tremendous amount of respect and reknown. His farm is located on a steeply sloping mountainside rich in volcanic soil, and his carefully-tended coffee trees are able to grow healthily without the aid of shade trees, thanks to their high altitude and the relatively low temperatures they enjoy in the Yemeni highlands. Whatsmost interesting and incredible about this lot from Ghalib's terraces is how specifically it reminds us, both of coffee's origins in general (Ethiopia), and also of this coffee's origin in particular (the Middle East). With notes of black lemon, lady grey tea, and watermelon bubblegum (you can thank the 96 hours of anaerobic fermentation for that last flavor note, by the way!), this coffee has a lot of characteristics which will feel warmly familiar to those who love Ethiopian coffees - it's floral, citrusy, and reminiscent of black tea. But, it also has a distinct aromatic - almost perfume-y - characteristic about it, calling back to its farmland in the only coffee-producing country in the Middle East.