Summary

Mokhtar began spending much of his time working at Willem Boot’s specialty coffee business, Boot Coffee, learning the business more thoroughly. He also studied coffee varietals in greater depth, and he prepared to take the formal examination to become a Q grader. Q graders were experts in Arabica varietals of coffee, and if Mokhtar passed the examination, he would be the world’s first Q grader of Arab descent. The fee for the Q grader class was $2,000, which Mokhtar did not have. Mokhtar asked his uncle for a loan, but his uncle declined. Mokhtar then approached Omar, who loaned Mokhtar the money. Willem then devised a finding proposal to the Coffee Quality Institute detailing a plan for Mokhtar to visit Yemen and find the best Yemeni coffee, and the CQI ultimately approved the funding request. In April of 2014, Mokhtar took the Q grader...