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Mokhtar Alkhanshali, at center. Courtesy image.
Equator Coffees co-founder Helen Russell is fond of saying that the people who grow coffee all over the world “link us right to the cup and how we tell that story.”

The Bay Area coffee juggernaut is set to showcase another one of those stories at its 2 Miller Ave. shop with a coffee tasting featuring Mokhtar Alkhanshali, a Bay Area based, Yemeni-American coffee entrepreneur. Alkhanshali is the subject of The Monk of Mokha, best-selling author Dave Eggers’ latest book, which comes out on Jan. 30.

The event, set for Friday, January 19, 9-11am, features Alkhanshali, the founder and CEO of Port of Mokha coffee, brewing and serving his coffee while customers ask him about his story, the book and his coffee. Equator will be selling a few bags of the coffee and will be releasing it in February. A camera crew from ABC7 will also be on handing filming a segment about Equator and Alkhanshali.

The book charts Alkhanshali’s journey to reawaken his ancestral homeland to its coffee legacy. Eggers uses that story to dive into a “history of coffee and its origins, growth, and development as a mass commodity and then as a niche product,” as well as “an adventure story of civil war in a foreign country; and a most improbable and uplifting success story,” according to a recent review of the book by Kirkus

Watch the CBS Sunday Morning segment below to learn more about Alkhanshali.