Sanani XI - Alchemy processed Yemenia - Yemen

Some coffees are selected for beauty. Others for significance. This is one of the rare cases where both are impossible to separate.

Sanani XI is our first ever coffee from Yemen, and it felt important that our first selection from this origin carried the weight of what Yemen represents. Coffee has been cultivated in the mountains surrounding Sana’a for more than six hundred years. These ancient terraced highlands are part of coffee’s deepest history, producing coffees shaped by altitude, low rainfall, dramatic temperature shifts and centuries of traditional farming.

This lot is built around Yemenia, a recently identified genetic population of Coffea arabica found only in Yemen. Discovered through Qima Coffee’s research, Yemenia represents one of the most important genetic findings in modern coffee, combining rare cup quality with a direct connection to Yemen’s preserved coffee diversity.

The result is a cup with remarkable depth and poise. Tropical sweetness leads the experience, moving through mango, baked pineapple and ripe plum before opening into Amarena cherry, dried fruit, baklava and fine cognac. The texture is rich and layered, shifting from juicy to syrupy as the coffee cools. Floral complexity and wine-like sweetness bring structure, while the finish remains long, concentrated and transparent.

Taste Experience

Expect an intensely layered and remarkably elegant cup with vibrant tropical fruit, floral complexity, wine-like sweetness and an exceptional structure. The extended Alchemy process contributes remarkable depth and concentration while maintaining impressive transparency, resulting in a cup that continues to evolve as it cools.

Process

Qima’s Alchemy process brings further depth without covering the identity of the coffee. The lot undergoes controlled aerobic fermentation, extended carbonic maceration in stainless steel tanks, a semi-anaerobic resting stage and slow drying for around twenty-five days on raised African beds. The intention is not to dominate the profile, but to reveal more of what Yemenia and the Sana’a terroir can express.

Sanani XI is part of Qima’s Competition & 90+ Series, reserved for some of Yemen’s rarest and highest-scoring lots. For us, this is exactly the kind of coffee that defines why Standout exists: not simply to offer rare coffees, but to select the ones that carry genuine meaning.

Producer: Smallholder farmers, Sana’a Governorate

Region: Sana’a, Yemen

Genetics: Yemenia

Process: Alchemy, extended carbonic maceration

Altitude: 1,800–2,200 masl

Cup profile: Mango, baked pineapple, Amarena cherry, baklava, fine cognac, florals