Mocha

Mocha is a port city on the Red Sea coast of Yemen. Until it was eclipsed in the 19th century by Aden and Hodeida, Mocha was the principal port for Yemen's capital Sana'a.

Mocha is famous for being the major marketplace for coffee from the 15th century until the 17th 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 relatively chocolaty flavor—and remain so even today. From this coffee the English language gained the word mocha, for such combinations of chocolate and coffee flavors as cafe mocha.

According to the Jesuit and traveler Jeronimo Lobo, who sailed the Red Sea in 1625, Mocha was "formerly of limited reputation and trade" but since "the Turkish assumption of power throughout Arabia, it has become the major city of the territory under Turkish domination, even though it is not the Pasha's place of residence, which is two days' journey inland in the city of Sana'a Lobo adds that its importance as a port was also due to the Ottoman law that required all ships entering the Red Sea to put in at Mocha and pay duty on their cargoes.

History of the Mocha-bean

The taste of Mocha is derived from a coffee bean that originated in the port city of Mocha. Marco Polo introduced the bean to Europe having acquired the Mocha bean from a salesman in Yemen. After the first one and a half month in his turbulent journey they were forced to go on shore in order to resupply their stocks. Because of poor leadership shown by the captain William Maurice there was little room for rationing foods. It became clear that Marco Polo and his ship would need to resupply in the southern part of the Middle East. In Ṣūr Marco Polo found a small marketplace with a salesman who was willing to sell him the Mocha bean. This salesman was a Yemenite and he had brought the bean from Mocha in Yemen.

Marco Polo brought the beans with him and presented them to the Duchy of Archipelago in Venice. This would be around the end of the Byzantine Empire.

The name Mocha in relation to chocolate is strictly as a result of European influence. Chocolate is not cultivated, nor imported into Mocha, and the advent of the coffee- chocolate mixture was done by the Europeans