Coffee (Yemeni Trade)

Timeline

1. c. 1450–1550Western Yemeni highlands · YemenSufi monasteries and western Yemeni farmers grew Arabica coffee trees on terraced highlands, developing roasting, grinding, and brewing techniques; Mocha became the Red Sea export hub, and coffee entered the Ottoman Empire and North Africa via the Jeddah–Suez–Cairo route.
2. 1550–1610Istanbul · Ottoman EmpireIn the 16th century coffee reached Istanbul and the first coffeehouses (kahvehane) appeared; Yemeni Mocha beans were distributed via Ottoman customs and merchant networks to Syria, Egypt, and the Balkans, making coffee an important element of urban social and commercial life in the empire.
3. 1611–1620Venice · ItalyAround 1615 Venetian merchants began importing Yemeni Mocha coffee; in 1616 Dutch merchant Pieter van den Broecke obtained green bean samples at Mocha. Within that decade coffee entered Western European high society via Venice and Marseille, Mocha's export volume rose with European demand, and western Yemeni plantations expanded their terraces.
4. 1650–1800Dutch East Indies (Java) · IndonesiaAt the end of the 17th century the Dutch introduced coffee to Java; in the 18th century large plantations in the French Caribbean and Portuguese Brazil broke Yemen's export monopoly and Mocha's trade declined, but western Yemeni Arabica varieties remain an important source of the global coffee genetic lineage.