Aljidan XV is a Yemenia coffee from Hayma Kharijiya in Yemen’s western highlands, and it scored 90.22 to top the field in the 2026 Best of Yemen auction. Processed using Qima Coffee’s Alchemy XV experimental fermentation, the lot produced notes of coffee blossom, cherry, mango, blueberry jam, honey, rhubarb, and sage. It sold on September 10 for $435 per pound, the highest price of the auction.
The top lot was purchased by a buying group that includes Olala Roastery, a Saudi Arabian specialty roaster that ships internationally. At the time of writing, the 2026 Aljidan lot may not yet be listed as a separate product. The green coffee needs to ship and be roasted before it reaches retail. Their catalog of Yemen and single-origin coffees is available at the link below.
The Winner
The Best of Yemen is an annual auction run by the Alliance for Coffee Excellence alongside Qima Coffee, a Sana’a-based exporter that has worked with Yemeni producers since 2016. An international jury blind-scores all submitted lots; the highest-scoring ones advance to a public online auction. In 2026, 33 lots qualified for bidding, with jury scores ranging from 87 to 90.22. The competition follows the same logic as the Cup of Excellence: the best coffees from a country, scored and sold transparently so producers are paid on quality.
Yemen’s coffee industry operates under severe constraints. Conflict, infrastructure damage, and limited access to international markets have compressed what was once one of the world’s most distinctive origin stories into a small but fiercely dedicated specialty sector. Qima’s Alchemy processing series is part of that effort. Each numbered Alchemy variant is a controlled fermentation experiment designed to develop the best qualities in Yemen’s native Yemenia beans. Alchemy XV, the process behind this year’s top lot, produced the highest jury score in the competition.
At $435 per pound, Aljidan XV achieved the highest price per pound in the auction. The lot weighs 86 pounds, a small harvest by any measure, shared across the buying group.
Read more about the Best of Yemen and similar auction competitions at the Cup of Excellence page.