Summer Cooking Camp

Sanani: The Best Original Hot and Iced Coffee
By Gerry Furth-Sides

Legend has it that a herdsman on the Arabian Peninsula noticed his goats acting exceedingly frisky after nibbling on the green berries of the coffee plant. This sounds about right. Next came coffee cultivation and roasting in Yemen, where it was the drink of choice in Sufi (think whirling dervishes) monasteries. So that sounds about right, too. Called qahwah in Arabic, the bev- erage became known as qahvay in Turkish, and as its popularity rose in Europe, terms like café and coffee caught on. The term “Mocha” origi- nates from its namesake port city located in the southernmost tip of the Arabian. Peninsula, now part of Yemen.

Europeans actually got their first taste when Marco Polo brought back beans he purchased from a Yemeni merchant in Lebanon. By the 16th century, bags labeled “Mocha” were making their way to Amsterdam and eventually to Parisian coffee shops. There mocha coffee became a sensation in the mid 1700s, even becoming the drink of choice for Napoleon Bonaparte!

The Yemeni port of Mocha became synonymous with the finest coffees from that time on until the late 19th century when it faded into obscurity. And so it would be except for a handful of capable and dedicated aficionados.

One of them is cosmopolitan and engaging Tariq Ausaf, a computer engineer who spent 18 years in the telecommunications industry. He makes the best use of his ease and work expertise in eastern and western cultures to follow his dream of “opening a café specializing in gourmet coffees, a dream,” he chuckles, “that has become my life quest.” His research to locate the finest coffee in the world led to Yemen, reports the father of four who now travels the globe promoting his cause from his home in Houston.

Ever the imaginative entrepreneur, Tariq chose the exotic name, Sanani, because it invokes the ancient Yemeni capital of Sana'a, is also another name for beans from that region). After tasting his Sanani Coffee arriving directly from Mocha, it appears that “Mocha” remains just as synonymous with the finest coffee as ever. The remarkably rich and smooth coffee still fits the description of dark, strong and sweet tasting. It also has startling layers of chocolaty undertones to it in every sip. And, like the best Venezuelan coffees, anything added to its silky mild texture, like milk or sugar, would be superfluous. Ausaf explained that Yemeni coffee owes its rich, unique characteristics to the harsh conditions in which it is grown. The Mattari region is semi- arid and at over 7000 feet, it “stresses the fruit, and results in a more intense flavor."

"Sanani beans from Yemen are pure higher altitude cofea Arabica grown with no cofea robusto beans, he emphasizes.”This translates to half the caffeine content as well. Yemeni mocha beans in fact have lower caffeine content at 1.01% than its famous Arabica cousins, Colombian Supremo (1.37%), Hawaiian Kona at 1.32% and even the wildly more expensive Jamaican Blue Mountain (1.24%).

The longer a bean is roasted, the lower the caffeine content by volume and "every bean has an optimal roast," says Ausaf. “The process compares to barreling wines with roasters take many factors into account, such as yield and whether it was it a wet or dry year.”

Sanani owes its quality, too, to being organic' and it so because it is so primitive," Tariq laughs. It is also Fair Trade “plus” because the best Yemeni coffee growers, managers and middleman are used, and they set their own prices. For more details and to
order the coffee, please visit the Sanani website, www.sanani.com.

For summer, Ausaf shares a favorite ice coffee recipe that makes a rich, refreshing drink: To 4 cups hot, strongly brewed coffee, add 1/2 cup canned sweetened condensed milk, a dash of cinnamon (optional) and crushed ice cubes.

Pour freshly brewed hot, strong coffee directly into a pitcher. Add the cinnamon and sweetened condensed milk and stir well till fully mixed.

Refrigerate until chilled. Stir well before serving. Pour into glasses filled with 1/4 crushed ice.

“I love home made fraps, “laughs Tariq, so for a super yum aesthetic experience, simply add lots of crushed ice and some vanilla ice cream to the coffee in a blender “

For ready-made iced coffee in a can, Seattle’s Best now offers Coffee® Iced Latte drinks inspired by the handcrafted versions of café guests’ favorite lattes. As tasty and rich as a milkshake, the list includes Iced Latte, Iced Vanilla Latte and Iced Mocha flavors ($1.49).

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