Mad Priest Coffee Roasters just spent its savings to purchase a lot of the newly discovered Yemenia species of coffee.
The Qima Coffee Auction was held in partnership with the Alliance for Coffee Excellence and drew some of the biggest names in coffee to pay up to $140 per pound, says Mad Priest owner and roaster Michael Rice.
Mad Priest purchased this coffee because Rice wants to be a part of history, he says.
“I want Mad Priest to be a vessel of the global coffee revolution through this new species,” he explains. “We’re not going to make money on this, but we want to make something big like this accessible to the general public, and in doing so, play a role in changing the future of the industry.”
Mad Priest is not new to Yemeni coffee; the roaster offered a coffee from Yemen in 2017 called The Original Hipster.
Rice says this new Yemenia coffee is “a whole new world” and will have a higher price tag.
Four-ounce bags of the Yemenia coffee will be available to purchase from Mad Priest in-store and online beginning Nov. 1. Mad Priest also plans to host various cuppings and educational opportunities surrounding the release.
Qima Coffee, together with World Coffee Research, discovered Yemenia, a new mother species, this summer. Up until now, there have been only a few mother species under the main species, Arabica, Rice says.
“In recent years, there has been a more concerted effort to develop the specialty coffee industry in new countries, as well as new processing methods, in order to meet demand,” Rice says. “New genetics in coffee potentially means expanded ways to produce better coffee with more resilience to disease and greater production capacity.”
Yemen has been part of the story of coffee for centuries, Rice continues. Though the coffee plant was discovered in Ethiopia, Yemen is the first place where coffee was cultivated as a crop and introduced as a drink.
“Coffee from Yemen has always been unique and very expensive for its quality because of the processing and the infrastructure challenges that come with war and famine,” adds Rice. “Mad Priest is honored to be just one part in what Qima coffee is calling the Yemen coffee revolution.”
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Source: Mad Priest