Cappuccino at AMG KAFFEEHAUS It seems like just when you had seen it all in the Dubai coffee scene, you get introduced to a new concept but this time it involves German cars and of course coffee… so welcome or should I say wilkommen (German for welcome) to AMG Kaffee described as the summit of luxury for coffee connoisseurs, foodies and the ultimate Mercedes AMG lover.  Located at Dubai Design District (D3) a stone throw from downtown you will notice as you drive into D3 a grey looking building on your right-hand side with the huge Mercedes Benz emblem decked with G-wa ..read more

Wow! wow! wow! I don’t even know where to start… BUT here we go. First of all what is a munchie espresso? It’s a Colombian Anaberoic honey processed, castillo varietal coffee, grown at 1,700m and produced by Andrés Quiceno and Julio Madrid on La Riviera Farm in Risaralda, Colombia, with a taste profile of…. wait for it….. Pineapple . Coconut. New York Cheesecake. Hazelnut and Butter Roasted by Pirates of Coffee in Toronto, Canada, part of their Loco (Spanish for crazy as in mad) series. Now for the coffee geek part…. “The Honey Culturing, Anaerobic process involves using fermentation sta ..read more

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the third edition of the World of Coffee Dubai, which took place from 21-23 January in Dubai, under the auspices of the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA). Sure. I’d been to the previous two and this year promised more excitement with a slightly bigger offering. Featuring much as before, with experts, coffee roasters, gadgets, coffee farmers, espresso machine and coffee roasting manufacturers and more, I thought I’d go, meet fellow coffee nerds, drink lots of coffee and attend a few lectures. Well, I did most of that and more, but sadly wasn’t able to attend ..read more

Birthday coffee I cannot finish 2023, without mentioning one of the most exciting coffee experiences in a coffee shop I had this year – the opening of Colonna and Smalls on Leather Lane in London. In fact this trip was made even more exciting for me, as they opened the day after I arrived in London for a trip and I visited on my birthday too – what a wonderful coffee experience for a birthday. Owned by Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood, a former UK barista champion several years ago, Maxwell has always been one to push the boundaries on all things coffee. When I first visited his first cafe in Bath I h ..read more

On reading the title of this post, you could be confused as to whether you jumped onto a site advertising a flower shop or some sort of botanical gardens in the city, BUT, all is forgiven, because this unique coffee shop marries the cafe owner’s love for flowers and of course, coffee. – I present you Urban Botanica Coffee Shop. Recommend by my daughter as a way to get me to satisfy my coffee craving near her home, I was in for a pleasant surprise. Upon entering, you will be greeted with lots of pot plants, especially on your left and you may be wondering, “am I in a flower shop?”. However, af ..read more

Everyone knows Oxford for their famous university and quaint English town vibe. It is full of lots of tourists in the summer with its classic buildings and historical sights, not to mention an abundance of English language schools, which attract a lot of people from all over the World to study during the summer. Early last month we went over to Oxford to attend our sons’ graduation and what a joyous occasion it was, especially as our son had said he didn’t want to go to university many years back. But as you know, whenever I visit any new city, I’m literally sniffing around for specialty coff ..read more

Earlier this month I was in London and of course the opportunity to check out new cafes was top of my list. I must confess, that I prayed that the weather would be warm, coming form 40C Dubai, but you’ll be glad to know that my prayers were answered, as this September went down as one of the warmest on record, with temperatures hovering over 30C on a few days. However, I’m not sure if it is because of Brexit, I was saddened to see that most coffee shops, even in central London, close between 3:30 and 4pm. For me, this was a travesty, as I love drinking coffee after every meal, even at night ..read more

I recall a few years back, pre-pandemic, when I read that there were a few restaurants opening in Dubai on a weekly or perhaps a monthly basis. It seems the coffee shop entrepreneurs or what I like to call the coffeepreneurs didn’t want to be left behind…. Enter a new coffee concept, Q-LAB, located in Jumeriah. Now to be honest, Q-Lab is not a new coffee shop as such but more a new concept born out of the company DXB Blends (DXB is the acronym for Dubai airport, just like you have LHR for London Heathrow Airport). In short, DXB blends have been around in Dubai for a few years, and I firs ..read more

And no, that isn’t a typo. Three Coffee Roasters are a Dubai based specialty coffee roasting coffee company, who tend to specialise in “funky” coffee and by that I mean that they push the boundaries in sourcing anaerobic, macerated, 90+ and rare coffees and then roasting them that make you say wow! once you sip them. So, it came as a I surprise to me when I was scrolling through my instagram feed that I saw Drew – their New Zealander Co-Founder and General Manager talking about their espresso coffees. Upon further inspection on their website I was pleasantly surprised to see that they offered ..read more

It had been 8 days in Marrakech and although I had brought along my aeropress, Hario electric grinder and some great Kenyan coffee to new in my hotel room, I was still craving specialty coffee brewed the espresso way. Having tried a couple of global chains in Marrakech (they didn’t exist two years ago), I knew there had to be more, so I returned to google search, which pulled up two reliable candidates, Bloom Coffee (which turned out to be specialty coffee roastery – next time I plan to visit insha’Allah) and Thirty5ive (that’s how they write it) cafe, which is where I headed after a long day ..read more