Cup of Al-Makha anyone?
European factories at Mocha in the late 17th century. Source: Wikipedia
Mocha is one of those things that just seems to be in the background of everyone’s childhood.
Chocolatey, sweet, milky, frothy… those rectangular “café” tins of flavor punches were a marketing coup.
Maxwell House International Cafe Suisse Mocha Beverage Mix.
In reality Mocha is an actual place, and it’s famous for being the major marketplace for coffee from the 15th century until the early 18th century. Even after other sources of coffee were found, Mocha beans (also called Sanani or Mocha Sanani beans, meaning from Sana'a) continued to be prized for their distinctive flavor—and remain so even today. The coffee itself did not grow in Mocha, but was transported from places inland to the port in Mocha, where it was shipped abroad.
Mocha reached its zenith in the 17th century, owing to its trade in coffee. The city boasted a stone wall enclosing a citadel, as well as a labyrinth of thatched huts that surrounded the wall from without. Of these, some four hundred accommodated Jewish households that engaged in trade. Passing through Mocha in 1752 and 1756, Franciscan missionary, Remedius Prutky, found that it boasted a "lodging-house of the Prophet Muhammad, which was like a huge tenement block laid out in many hundred separate cells where accommodation was rented to all strangers without discrimination of race or religion." He also found a number of European ships in the harbor: three French, four English, two Dutch, and one Portuguese. In the 18th century, a plague killed half of the city's population, from which time the city never really recovered.
Villa of the Turkish governor, late 19th century.
18th century French plan of Mocha, Yemen. The Somali, Jewish and European quarters are located outside the citadel.
In appearance the coffee is very small, hard, round with an irregular shape, and olive green to pale yellow in color. The Mocha coffee bean has a distinct flavor. Due to the similar name, it is sometimes confused with a chocolate-flavored coffee. Although the beans originally shipped from the port of Mocha, Yemen were thought to have had a chocolate-like taste, current mocha beans from Yemen do not. In the 17th century, the Mocha coffee bean was available only from the port city of Mocha in Yemen, shipped only after roasting to prevent propagation.
Sailors arriving in Mocha were frequently traveling home to the Indonesian island of Java, and a blend of the two countries' coffees today known as Mocha Java naturally developed with the high acidity Mocha complementing the naturally rounded flavors of Java. This is pretty much why people call coffee, “Java” because as sailors left Indonesia and the beans visited all the ports-of-call, the term became synonymous with coffee beans everywhere. Man! We would have love to cup a Mocha Java blend from the 17th century. Although, It probably would have tasted pretty much the same as it does today.
Keep in mind - ships took forever to get where they were going back then. Europeans would have had to wait for up to three years for a voyage. The beans on arrival would have been “monsoon” treated by all the wind and humidity of the sea.
Also, Mocha is not to be confused with a Caffè Mocha, which is basically a hot chocolate mixed with a shot of espresso. Like cappuccino, caffè mochas typically contain the distinctive milk froth on top, although, as is common with hot chocolate, they are sometimes served with whipped cream instead. We get it, we were young once — and the taste and texture of melting marshmallows in a warm cup of coffee laced hot chocolate... one second, brb.
Sources:
Mocha, Yemen. (2019, September 22). Retrieved October 31, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mocha,_Yemen.
Caffè mocha. (2019, October 18). Retrieved October 31, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffè_mocha.
