As the first coffee plantations began to be established in the Yemeni highlands in the 15th century AD, the port city of Mocha implemented a fierce protectionist strategy to solidify their monopoly on the supply of coffee. Coffee beans were harvested in the mountainous inland regions and transported several hundred kilometres to Mocha by camel. This meant that most people only ever saw the beans and didn’t know what the actual coffee plants looked like. Anyone caught trying to smuggle live coffee plants out of the country was severely punished – in some cases executed! On top of this, the city imams mandated that all exported beans were boiled or partially roasted to kill the viability of the seeds. During this period, coffee was primarily exported to the expanding Ottoman Empire – including Mecca, Cairo, and Istanbul – but it was also exported to Europe in small quantities. The word “Mocha” became synonymous with coffee itself; a legacy that survives today in the name “mocaccino” or “mocha”. Little wonder, as the only way anyone could taste coffee for 250 years was if it came directly through this port.
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