In early 2023, a small shipment of Yemeni green coffee arrived at Incheon Port in South Korea. It wasn’t large — just three small wooden crates, totaling 42 kilograms. But what happened next shocked the Korean specialty coffee industry.
This story begins long before the shipment reached Korea.
It starts in the remote mountains of Al-Hayma, where a farmer named Majed had been perfecting his family’s drying methods for years.
Majed’s Rare Micro-lot
Majed produced an extremely small micro-lot of natural-processed coffee.
His cherries were dried slowly on rooftops using a centuries-old method — with no machines, no chemicals, only sun, stone, and mountain winds.
When a buyer from Sand Coffee visited the village, Majed said quietly:
“I don’t have much, but what I have is pure.
My father taught me to choose every cherry with my own hands.”
The beans were tiny, dense, and beautifully shaped — a sign of high-altitude, stress-grown Yemeni coffee.
The Arrival in Korea: A Silent Shock
When the crates reached a specialty roaster in Seoul named Haneul Coffee Lab, the team expected good beans — but nothing extraordinary.
But the moment they roasted the first sample batch, the entire room filled with a fragrance they had never experienced.
The lead roaster, Kim Seong-ho, wrote in his notebook:
“This is not coffee.
This is perfume —
berries, jasmine, honey, dried fruit…
I’ve never smelled anything like it.”
During the cupping session the next morning, the reactions were even more dramatic.
Roasters who attended the session said:
- “Is this for real? This is Yemeni?”
- “The sweetness! I can’t believe this is natural processed.”
- “We must get more — even if it’s expensive.”
The beans sold out within 24 hours — every gram.
Some cafés in Seoul created a “Yemeni Week” event where coffee lovers lined up to try a single pour-over cup.
The Story Behind the Hype
Why did a tiny shipment make such a big noise?
Because Yemeni coffee has something that other coffees don’t:
✔ Volcanic soil untouched for centuries
✔ Ancient genetic varieties
✔ Cherry-by-cherry hand-picking
✔ Slow sun drying on mountain rooftops
✔ Extreme altitude (up to 2,500 meters)
✔ Limited yearly production
Korean consumers value rarity and authenticity.
When they learned the story of Majed — the farmer working alone in the mountains — demand increased even more.
And when they discovered that Sand Coffee works directly with farmers and pays them premium prices, Korean roasters began requesting long-term partnerships.
A New Global Appreciation for Yemeni Coffee
That small 42-kg shipment achieved something extraordinary:
- It connected a Korean specialty market to a Yemeni mountain village
- It revived appreciation for ancient Yemeni varieties
- It proved that Yemen’s coffee heritage still leads the world in flavor and rarity
Today, Sand Coffee regularly exports micro-lots to Korea, Japan, America, and Europe — but Majed’s micro-lot remains one of the most unforgettable.