Yemeni Qishr

Qishr is Yemen’s other coffee drink. Instead of the beans, it’s made from the dried husks of the coffee cherry, the fruit around the bean, brewed with ginger and often cinnamon, cardamom and sugar. The result is tea-like, spicy and fruity. The husks are cheaper than the beans and need no roasting, which helped make qishr an everyday drink in Yemen, the country whose port of Mocha gave its name to coffee’s early trade. Here’s what it is and how it’s made.

The short version

• Made from coffee husks, not the beans.
• Spiced, above all with ginger; sometimes cinnamon or cardamom.
• Usually sweetened with sugar.
• Tea-like and fruity, more like a spiced tea than a coffee.
• An everyday drink in Yemen.

What is qishr made from?

The coffee cherry is a fruit: the bean is its seed, wrapped in a pulpy layer and a skin. When coffee is processed, the beans are separated from the dried fruit, the husk. In Yemen, those husks are brewed into qishr. Because they don’t need roasting and cost less than the beans, they’ve long been an affordable everyday drink.

How is qishr made?

Recipes vary by region and household, so there’s no single method. The common pattern is:

1. Steep or simmer dried coffee husks in water with ginger, and sometimes cinnamon or cardamom.
2. Sweeten it with sugar, to taste.
3. Strain and serve hot.

Al Mokha, a Yemeni coffee importer, publishes a traditional recipe from the Rayyan Mill. For one cup of water, it uses:

	Amount
Dried qishr (coffee husks)	5 g, about 1 tablespoon
Cardamom	½ pod, crushed, not ground
Fresh ginger	1 sliver
Cinnamon	⅓ of a stick
Steep in hot water	6 minutes

Al-Bab describes qishr made with ginger, sometimes cinnamon, and sugar. Husks sold for qishr can also be brewed plain, which Al Mokha describes as giving a fruity, slightly sweet tea with a body like black tea.

What does qishr taste like?

Tea-like rather than coffee-like: fruity and lightly sweet from the husks, warm and spicy from the ginger. Aramco World called it “a delicately flavored, tea-like infusion”, and Al Mokha says its body and mouthfeel are akin to black tea.

A short history of qishr

Yemen was the first great centre of the coffee trade, shipping through the port of Mocha. Yemenis have long used the coffee fruit as well as the bean. Travellers noticed: an account of San’a’ in 1823 describes guests being given “an infusion of coffee husk called ‘keshr’”, and in 1947 the explorer Wilfred Thesiger wrote that qishr was drunk “particularly in the Tihamat al ’Asir”. A 1997 Aramco World article described qishr as the drink of choice among Yemenis from mid-morning on, and noted that, unlike other coffee-growing countries where the husks are thrown away, Yemen uses them to make qishr. The same article says this has led to the false impression that Yemenis no longer drink their own coffee. Wikipedia says the earliest qishr was a kind of wine made from fermented coffee fruit, used in religious ceremonies; the details of that early history are uncertain.

Qishr vs coffee vs cascara

	Qishr	Coffee	Cascara
Made from	Dried coffee husks	Roasted coffee beans	Dried coffee husks
Spiced	Yes, usually ginger	Sometimes	Usually plain
Taste	Fruity, spicy, tea-like	Roasted, bitter-sweet	Fruity, tea-like

General guidance only. Take care with simmering water, and check that husks are sold as food, from a reputable supplier.

Qishr vs other methods

• Arabic coffee: light-roast coffee with cardamom, from the same region.
• Ethiopian jebena buna: the coffee ceremony across the Red Sea.
• Kuti: a tea made from coffee leaves.
• Turkish coffee: powder-fine coffee from the Ottoman tradition.

Explore every boiled method in the boiled chapter.