WEBVTT

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The US Is the world's second
biggest importer of coffee.

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It is a very labor intensive crop.

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It can take three to four years 
for a plant to bear the kind of fruit

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we would roast and grind.

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But the two people 
typically paid the least in the chain

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are the farmer and the barista.

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Learning about coffee is about learning
where your dollar goes.

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We follow one of those chains
from Michigan to Yemen.

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CONFLICT COFFEE

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Hello. Hey, how are you?

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What would you recommend today?

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You want something with cream or no cream?

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A little cream--

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Go with the [...]

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(Ibrahim) So, everything for here, right?

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(customer) Yes, sir.

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(Amel) <i>Ibrahim Alhasbani
is a coffee mogul in the making.</i>

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<i>in 2017, he opened his
first shop in Dearborn,</i>

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<i>and is now branching out to two locations.</i>

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<i>One across town and another in New York.</i>

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<i>He's not selling your average 
American-style filtered coffee, though.</i>

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<i>Alhasbani's coffee beans are from Yemen.</i>

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(Alhasbani) Enjoy, guys.

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(customer) Thank you.

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We're going to make
one Sana'ani and one Jubani.

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Okay.

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For the Sana'ani, we're going to use
a medium roast with cardamom.

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For the Jubani, we use a light roast,
medium roast, coffee husks,

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ginger, cinnamon, and cardamom.

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Got it.

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So, it's like a special mix.

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This is like the gateway drug into Yemen.

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Yes. It's like a bridge.

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It doesn't have sugar.

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Yemeni coffee is famous
because it has natural sweetness in it.

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And I take my coffee with sugar 
every morning,

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but I can drink this without sugar.

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Good.

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It's going to change your mind now.

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(Amel) <i>These coffee beans are sweeter</i>

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<i>because they're grown in the highest
mountainous regions of the country.</i>

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Why is coffee so important for Yemen?

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(Alhasbani) For Yemen, first, is our culture.

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We drink coffee every day.

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It has also opened Yemen
to the other countries.

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When they started shipping
to different countries,

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people, they read more about Yemen,

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they want to visit Yemen,

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they want to see
what's different about Yemen.

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(Amel) How old were you 
when you had your first cup of coffee?

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(Alhasbani) So my mom, she told me when I was a kid,

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I had two things, coffee and a spicy.

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She thinks, there's something wrong
with this baby.

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(Amel) <i>Yemen, may have been the first 
to drink coffee nearly a thousand years ago</i>

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<i>when it exported it out of 
a famous port called Mocha,</i>

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<i>but colonialism, conflict,</i>

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<i>and the rising popularity
of coffee crops elsewhere,</i>

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<i>overtook it.</i>

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<i>Alhasbani left home in 2011,</i>

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<i>but his brother still back in Haraz</i>

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<i>running the family's coffee farm.</i>

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Hello?

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Hello.

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How are you?

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All is good. Thank God.

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Okay. And how's everything there?

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Everything's great.
The coffee beans are great.

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Make sure you don't roast it
except with the right amount of time

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and at the right time.

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Yes, for sure.

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Let's go... let's go... let's go...

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Let's go, Abadan. Let's go, Noureddeen.

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Let's go.

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Let's go, it's noon.

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The sun is getting hot. Hold this.

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Here. Hold this.

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Watch out for my foot.

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The red and tender ones.

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The red.

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This is one of the best types of coffee.

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Look, they're red.

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Come on, come on.

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For people's livelihoods,
it's the coffee bean tree.

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If you notice, all of the valleys 
and empty areas here

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are used to grow coffee beans.

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All riches here are gone.

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Everyone here grows coffee beans.
There's nothing else left.

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(Amel) <i>For five years, a rebel militia 
based in the north, the Houthis,</i>

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<i>has been fighting with a coalition
backed by the Saudis for control.</i>

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<i>The coalition blocked 
most imports from coming in,</i>

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<i>and the fighting has made life
in the region's poorest country hell.</i>

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<i>More than 100,000
people have died so far.</i>

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<i>From airstrikes, famine,
and rampant disease.</i>

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<i>And exporting anything 
amid all of this chaos</i>

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<i>is sometimes impossible.</i>

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<i>It's cheaper to attempt this 
only once a year,</i>

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<i>and the only way to keep the beans fresh</i>

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<i>is to roast and grind them in the US.</i>

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You must really believe in this yemeni
coffee. Yes, first, I believe in our brand,

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I believe, in our yemeni coffee beans, as
one of the best companies in the world.

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Also, I believe in myself.

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I didn't listen to anyone. I just said

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I spend all saving, I have 41k, a
break it down. I guess I use it.

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I use all my credit card.
I use all the money I have.

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So everybody will be your crazy

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when people first hear the word
Yemen, they think of a current War.

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Bloodshed,

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but to you, Yemen, signifies
something else. It's not in my life.

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It's my birth place.

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I stopped watching news, actually, especially
ones come to him. And it's just said,

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I'm fired right here,
and I can't do nothing.

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It's just, I can't control my
emotion. I can't control myself.

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It's bothering me from inside.

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Oh, my family. So there I have
my sister said she was sick

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and because it was no hospital in
here, man. It is no doctors normal said

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she was away in the way and because

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they take her to the hospital and they
said, they didn't do nothing for her.

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So they send her back
home and she get worse.

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They take her back to the
hospital. She didn't make it.

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Do you ever feel guilty

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that you're here and there?
They're back in a war zone.

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Sometimes I feel guilty because I'm not
next to them. Family is very important.

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Other side, when I
found not guilty because

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at least I'm here to
support them to help them.

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If all of us stuck there, you
don't know what's going to happen.

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What are your hopes for a better? You

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this war has to end.

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This is first second. We have
to be all yemeni together.

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What are you thinking about?
I just wanna get emotional.

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That's why I'm yeah.

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It just said I was crazy about me.

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When I remember those people as
Nana, they fight. It's not just,

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it's really bad.

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Okay, if we're not, not gonna do nothing,
nothing gonna change.