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By Shabib Abdulkader Yemen Times Date 17 May, 2004
In 1616 A Dutch visitor to Al-Makha, Peter Vander Broecke, noted a caravan of 1000 camels carrying goods including fruit, cloth, spices, dyes, pottery and, most importantly, coffee, the latest craze in Europe, grown in the Yemeni mountains.
Yemenis were also first who commercialized the product. Two years later the English and Dutch built Al-Makha first coffee factories. They were soon followed by other Europeans and by Americans. By the 1630s coffee rose to such heights that Yemen was unable to meet the demand. Prices soared, bringing prosperity to the coffee merchants of Al-Makha, who built beautiful villas in the city. During those years Yemen had a virtual monopoly in the beans and the trade name “Mocha coffee has survived to the present day. Coffee is still grown in the mountains of Yemen. Much efforts vacuum pack of “Yemen coffee†makes also a nice souvenir. It is available as whole beans or ground. Yemenis mix a fine grind with boiling water and let it sink to the bottom of the cup.
Conveying from the time of memories traditional cafe’s in Yemen are everywhere, often at rest stations or places for daily meetings with friends with hobbies such as sports and playing cards. Such are above sociable gatherings for lively people and poets for exchanges in life often second world war, in particular. In cafe’s one finds also another group of visitors and guests preoccupied with images of heroes from legends and adventures. They are fond of stories of Alzeer Salem, Al-America that Al-Hema, Hamza Al-Bahlawan, Antar Al-Absy and Saif Ben thi Yazen. In many traditional cafe’s the flavor of the past is still kept alive.
To start with, let us go to Aden and visit the traditional cafe’s of Aden. The traditional cafe’s in Aden still hold the memories of the generation during forties and fifties of this century. The beginning of traditional cafe goes back to 1930. The first traditional café used to be the Alsewaid café. It was located in Al-Mydan, (The Square) in Crater near the Cinema. It dates back to 1908, has seen caravans and camels loaded with fire wood and fodder. One has a good chance to meet one of the elders, born in 1898 in Crater. He spent most of his life as sailor. He has his own memories of the sea. He said, he knew Aden when it was merely a town of cats, saints’ monuments and the Hadith mosque. But the most outstanding mosque, the Al-Askani mosque was destroyed and replaced by buildings. Thus the café’s in the days of Uncle Salem Hammam Al-Sayad used to be a place away from troubles, a refuge shelter for strangers, lodging for travelers and a bank for a share holder. How many café’s surely in Aden witnessed troubles, also incidents, though they surely also witnessed happiness and blessings, remains to be told. Some of the most important cafe’s still remembered by many. Zako café in Crater, Al-Gelihy café in Moalla da-ka Al-Greek café in Al-Shaikh Othman and Al-Dubee café in Al-Towahi. In addition to the famous café in Al- Moalla known as Al-Somal café as most of its visitor is Somalians. They mix sweets and fruits of different tastes such as bananas, melon, Att, Hegeb and Abasy, our local delicious fruit is from the gardens of Lahj, and Abyan. The firs time visitor to our traditional cafe’s should try Al-Mali, a delicious drink. It is consumed usually with bread. Sailors and tourists take it during mornings. The tourist, who visits our town for the first time, will find in cafes all what he or she desires to see and writes about us, traditions, manners, ways of life, and gossips of cafe’s cheerful sessions. From traditional cafe’s we wish to mention Zako café. It is located in the heart of the long market west of Al-Jazeera Hotel at the square. At the Zako café they offer mint ten with fresh flavor in addition to teas of different brands, and recipes such as:
tea with Al-Malie made of fresh skimmed milk mixed with red tea,
Albegs tea heavy tea without sugar.
The Al-Garo tea, of strong tea mixed with little milk.
Al-Osamali tea which is red light tea.
Tea with Al-Zakab made of little amount of tea and a lot of milk.
The Nos Al-Double tea.
The camel double tea. They invent a new name for the Al-Selali tea. They call it Double Al-Double with much milk.
Visiting the Zako café for the first time may be a surprise. The café is full of inharmonious sounds. One of the café’s regular visitors used to be is Doctor Hamama. He used to abuse his friends with worst offenses. His funny jokes about the local and world politics made everyone laugh.
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