Why are Mocha coffee beans, Moka pot, and Mocha coffee called Mocha? Is the coffee extracted from a Moka pot Mocha coffee? What coffee beans should I buy using a coffee pot?

Obviously, this is not a correct answer. Because Mocha neither produces coffee beans nor is it the birthplace of the Moka pot. But this does not mean that the above-mentioned items have nothing to do with Mocha. Today Front Street will share with you why Mocha coffee beans, Mocha coffee, and Moka pots are all called Mocha!

Mocha

First of all, we need to briefly understand the place Mocha. Mocha is a port city on the Red Sea coast in southern Yemen. In the past, it was a very important transportation hub, and its status was no less than that of Shanghai Port today. Because it is the only waterway connecting the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, all merchant ships that need to trade from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean, Europe and other places must pass through this pass.

In addition, Mocha Port is also the earliest coffee trade distribution center and the largest coffee trade center in the world. For more than three hundred years from the 15th century to the early 18th century, most of the world's coffee was exported from the Port of Mocha. We can see the importance of coffee to Yemen from its national emblem. The famous Mocha coffee beans are named after Mocha Port.

mocha coffee beans

Although Mocha does not produce coffee beans, the main source of the coffee it exports is grown in the central region of Yemen (not all). It is worth mentioning that Yemen is the first country to cultivate coffee on a large scale as an agricultural product.

After the coffee was exported to all over the world through the Port of Mocha, it received unanimous praise for its unique chocolate flavor. But at that time, the traceability information of coffee only came from the Port of Mocha, so people at that time simply called the coffee (beans) exported from the Port of Mocha: "Mocha coffee (beans)".

With the popularity of coffee in Europe, the coffee exported through the port of Mocha was sold under the name "Mocha coffee". This is also related to the policy at the time. All coffee sacks exported through the Mocha Port will be printed with the word "Mocha", which further deepens people's impression of Mocha coffee. So we can know that the original "Mocha coffee" refers to the coffee beans exported from Mocha (more specifically, it refers to the Mocha coffee beans grown in Yemen with a chocolate flavor).

However, due to the surge in global demand for coffee, colonial trading companies such as the Netherlands, France, and the British East India Company smuggled coffee seeds out of Yemen through various channels and planted them on a large scale. As smuggled coffee plants blossom and bear fruit in other countries, Yemen gradually loses its monopoly on coffee.

Not only because of the low price of coffee in other countries, but also due to other reasons such as the mid-to-late Ottoman Empire rule, Mocha coffee's market share gradually shrank, which led to the gradual reduction of Mocha coffee production and exports. In just a few centuries, Yemen has fallen from being the world's only coffee overlord to having a negligible share of the market. By the beginning of the 19th century, Yemen's coffee production had shrunk to less than 6% of the world's total production; today, it does not even account for 0.1%, and Mocha coffee beans have officially become rare and hard-to-find coffee beans.

mocha coffee

The "mocha coffee" we are talking about now refers more to the Italian milk coffee made from espresso and milk as the base, and then adding chocolate products to it (it can be simply understood as latte with chocolate).

Some people say that this is a specially prepared product to replicate the chocolate flavor in mocha coffee beans. This is not entirely unbelievable. After all, it’s not hard to imagine that as Yemen loses its monopoly on coffee, fewer and fewer mocha beans are flowing into European countries. Those who have always had a deep love for mocha coffee (beans), when they can no longer drink mocha coffee with a rich chocolate flavor, may come up with such an idea and implement it in order to recreate the delicious taste of the past.

What's more, the status of Mocha coffee (beans) in people's hearts at that time was like the Blue Mountain in the last century and the Gesha in this century. Therefore, it is not ruled out that in order to reflect the style, a drink similar to the flavor of mocha coffee beans is specially prepared and named "Mocha coffee".

So we can know that the "mocha coffee" mentioned nowadays refers more to the coffee drink specially prepared by adding milk and chocolate products to the espresso system. Because mocha coffee has its own chocolate flavor, it is very suitable to be paired with medium-dark roasted Italian beans - the Front Street Classic Blend, which combines the caramel aroma of Brazilian red bourbon and Indonesian mandheling. At the same time, in order to increase the richness of oil, the Front Street Classic Blend adds a small amount of robusta. The resulting coffee has a rich flavor of butter, dark chocolate, and roasted chestnuts.

moka pot

Finally, there’s the Moka Pot! I believe the Moka Pot is the most familiar member of the three "Mochas". After all, it is shared quite frequently on Front Street Street, and it is also the latest among the three "Mokas" to be born.

The Moka pot is a coffee extraction tool invented by Alfonso Bialetti in Italy in the early 20th century (1933). Because it uses pressurized extraction like an espresso machine, it can also produce black coffee with a relatively higher concentration.

With its innovative design, affordable price, and high compatibility with local culture, the Moka pot was very popular as soon as it was launched and quickly became popular in Italy. But if you ask, what does it have to do with Mocha...it doesn't seem to have much to do with it.