At the beginning of 2026, you couldn’t find Yemeni coffee in Johnson County.

Known for flavors like cinnamon, cardamom and clove, Yemeni coffee has now landed with a splash, with multiple coffee shops now serving it in the Kansas City metro area.

Last weekend, one northeastern Johnson County city got its first taste. In Mission, Moka & Co’s customers lined up as baristas busily poured Biscoff lattes, Adeni chai lattes, fruity refreshers and more.

The new franchise of the New York-based coffee shop celebrated its grand opening on Sunday in Mission, following a friends and family preview event on Friday.

Moka & Co opened at 5922 Barkley St.

• The shop took over a space at the Cornerstone Commons, just off Johnson Drive and Barkley Street in Mission.
• Previously, fast-casual eatery PepperJax Grill occupied that space.
• Moka & Co’s regular hours in Mission are 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, and 7:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Moka & Co serves Yemeni coffee in various forms

The menu at Moka & Co offers a variety of coffee drinks, from classic cold brews and americanos to traditional drinks like mufawar (medium roast coffee brewed with milk, cardamom and other spices) and qishr (light roast black coffee with ginger and cinnamon).

Moka & Co is also known for “signature” lattes with flavors like Biscoff, salted caramel, pistachio and Dubai chocolate.

The New York-based company gets its beans (and its name) from Mohka, a port city in Yemen that played a significant role in the popularization of coffee as a trade and as a beverage.

Those beans are shipped from Mohka to Moka & Co’s warehouse in New York, then to its different shops across the country.

“Everything here you taste is authentic Yemeni beans,” said franchise owner Ahmad Aly said. “That’s where coffee culture and tradition all started, and then it spread throughout the world in different ways.”

In addition to coffee, the shop also serves tea drinks like chai lattes, matcha lattes, fruity refreshers and fruit smoothies.

The Mission spot also has a drive-thru in the back of the building, a feature its owners say sets Moka & Co apart from other Yemeni coffee shops in the area.

This marks the first Moka & Co shop in Johnson County

Aly owns the new franchise with co-owner and friend Tawfiq Habashi, whose family also owns Middle Eastern eatery Habashi House in Kansas City, Missouri’s River Market area.

They spent months turning the Mission spot from the former PepperJax Grill into what it is now. Their hope, they said, is that Moka & Co’s customers show up with curiosity.

Seeing the first ones walk through the door and sip their first drinks, after months of hard work, is both exciting and a relief.

“It’s been heartwarming,” said Aly at an opening event on Friday afternoon. “We put our hearts and souls into it. Seeing this response, it just makes me feel happy (to see) the product of my hard work.”

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