In Yemen's highlands, hope persists where coffee grows

Sanaa: The sun had just started to crest the rugged hills of Haraz in western Yemen when I met Ahmad Ali Nassim, a 50 year old coffee farmer whose han...

Sanaa: The sun had just started to crest the rugged hills of Haraz in western Yemen when I met Ahmad Ali Nassim, a 50-year-old coffee farmer whose hands were already stained with sap from his morning's work.

We stood on a narrow trail meandering between stone-bordered terraces. The air was fresh and brisk with a faint scent from wild herbs and ripening coffee cherries.

"This tree," he said, patting a branch heavy with red fruit, "has seen both war and storm, just like us."

As early as six centuries ago, the Haraz highlands were already renowned as a cradle of Yemen's traditional coffee.

With their lofty elevation, singular rocky soil, and humid climate, the mountains offer a convergence of conditions so particular that they seemed almost fated for the cultivation of exceptional coffee.