A wooden dhow under sail at dusk off Mocha, with the old port town on the horizon

Our story

Named for the Port That Named the Coffee

Mocha, Yemen: where coffee meets the sea.

Chapter one · Mocha

Where Coffee Meets the Sea

Mocha is a port on Yemen's Red Sea coast. From the 16th to the 19th century it was one of the world's great coffee markets: beans came down from the highlands and across the water from Ethiopia, then sailed from its harbor to the rest of the world.

Engraving of coffee traveling from Yemen's terraced highlands by camel caravan to the port of Mocha, where ships wait in the harbor

The name traveled with the beans. It lives on in the mocha latte, the Moka pot, and in Germany, where traditional coffee is still called Mokka.

Mocha is a port city on Yemen's Red Sea coast. From the 16th to the 19th century it was one of the most important coffee markets in the world. The coffee didn't grow in Mocha itself: it came down from Yemen's highlands and across the water from Ethiopia, then sailed from Mocha's harbor to the rest of the world.

English, Dutch and French traders kept warehouses there, and every ship entering the Red Sea stopped at Mocha. The name traveled with the beans. It lives on in the mocha latte, in the Moka pot, and in Germany, where traditional coffee is still called Mokka.