Hayma Kharijiya XV

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

The range that runs through this region is known locally as the Navy Blue Mountains, named for the colour it turns at distance. The air is clear enough that from almost any ridge you can see the whole district laid out below, valley after valley: Wadi Ali, Wadi Sarf, Wadi Bani Ahmed, with the old Mufhaq and Al Manar forts still standing above them.

Around a thousand families grow coffee here, between 1,700 and 2,100 metres, and this lot is drawn from across the district rather than from any one of them. Individually their farms are far too small to fill a lot. Collectively they hold one of the most consequential coffee landscapes in Yemen.

What has changed here in recent years is ambition. Farmers have expanded, become more careful about what they plant, and paid closer attention to the harvest, because quality now determines what they are paid rather than mere weight.

This lot was processed with Alchemy XV, which follows carbonic maceration with a separate anaerobic fermentation, keeping the lift of the earlier protocol and setting it on a deeper base. The district has done this before to good effect: a Hayma Kharijiya Alchemy lot placed tenth in the 2023 auction.