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The origin of coffee beans is more and more popular, which is part of the brand story.

Published: 2026-08-23 Author: World Gafei

Last Updated: 2026/08/23, Blue Bottle, one of the representatives of American boutique coffee, recently launched a coffee bean from the Yemeni company Port of Mokha, which is more expensive. The price of a single cup is $16, and the price of bagged coffee beans is $65, equivalent to 429 yuan. In addition to becoming the most expensive coffee bean in the Bay area, we can also take it with the popularity of fine coffee.

Blue Bottle, one of America's finest coffee brands, recently launched a coffee bean from Yemen's Port of Mokha company-which is more characterized as "expensive."

Hand-brewed coffee costs $16 per cup, and bagged beans cost $65, or 429 yuan. In addition to being the most expensive bean in the Bay Area, it can also be compared to the general price of fine coffee: a 12-ounce bag of Stumptown coffee, which started in Portland, sells for $15. This Yemeni bean is almost four times more expensive. And we have reported before Starbucks in the introduction of the most expensive so-called best Jamaica Wallendorf Manor Blue Mountain coffee, 250 grams of price is also 388 yuan.

So, in addition to the standard flavor description of fine coffee, Blue Bottle would need a good story if it wanted to sell its expensive beans.

The founder of Port of Mokha was Mokhtar Alkhanshali, a Yemeni who grew up in San Francisco. Over the past two years, he has spent much of his time working with local farmers to pioneer Yemen's coffee-growing environment. Generally speaking, Africa and South America are important coffee producing areas, which have the advantages of geographical environment and relatively stable social environment as a basis.

Yemen, a country in southwest Asia bordering Oman and Saudi Arabia, has long been at war. The country is now divided into at least three parts, controlled by Husserl's armed forces, self-seeking forces and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Port of Mokha, on the one hand, provides loans to coffee farmers and has set up six local offices to encourage farmers to focus on coffee farming. Mokhtar Alkhanshali, on the other hand, actively seeks out overseas markets for the coffee, including smuggling beans at great risk. According to Luke Tsai, author of East Bar Express, some of the Yemeni coffee beans used by Blue Bottle fall within what Yemeni authorities consider smuggling.

Mokhtar Alkhanshali and James Freeman

"How much of the profit from this $16 cup of coffee goes back to the beans? How much was returned to Alkhanshali, who risked his life? How much is pure profit?" Blue Bottle founder James Freeman responds to coffee overpricing. And if customers care more about taste, Freeman says,"This is going to be one of the best coffees they've ever had in their lives."

While uninitiated drinkers can't judge its taste, it might be worth reading Blue Bottle for another reason--if it can push Yemeni coffee to an expensive, high-quality level, it's also a big advantage over other boutique cafes.

Reprinted: Curiosity Daily

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