Bait Alal XV

Bait Alal XV · Community Lot · Alchemy XV · Yemenia · Bait Alal, Hayma Kharijiya, Sana'a

At more than 2,300 metres, Bait Alal is the highest coffee ground in Hayma Kharijiya, and the cold up there does something useful. Cherries ripen slowly, sugar concentrates, and the fruit reaches the processing station denser than it would from any lower valley. That is the raw material Alchemy XV is built to work with.

XV is the second protocol in the series, introduced in 2022. It begins with carbonic maceration, the sealed, gas regulated fermentation that made XI's reputation, then layers a dedicated anaerobic stage on top of it: two distinct biochemical environments, one after the other. The brightness of the original protocol survives, and now sits on a considerably deeper base.

The coffee is drawn from holdings small enough that no single farmer here could fill a lot alone. The trees were inherited rather than planted, and the families working them were the earliest in Yemen to put their weight behind specialty coffee.

They have been rewarded for it. Bait Alal's Alchemy lots have placed in the auction since 2021, and buyers have consistently paid more for them than for the valley's naturals.