Melitta key account manager international Falko Pluckebaum believes the market is full of innovation at the moment.
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Custom Blends on the rise
Custom blends have always had their place in the market for two prominent reasons: supply and price.
But the blend is blossoming in popularity, according to Pantry Café vice chairperson Yana Kalwani.
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“Increasingly cafés are creating their own unique coffee combinations in order to create an identity that helps reflect their concept,” Kalwani asserts.
Bean Machine owner Paul Farrance believes that the UAE is following the trend of coffee drinkers in Europe, South Africa and Australia, becoming “more knowledgeable about coffee and demanding more variety and better quality”.
And for Rob Jones, managing director Coffee Planet, there are so many different blends available now that coffee drinkers don’t need to “go through the hassle” of finding a custom blend.
“It’s more important to invest in good quality coffee and finding the right flavour and intensity for you,” he adds.
But Ryan Godinho, event director International Coffee & Tea Festival (ICTF), warns that while skilled roasters are able to offer a consistent flavour profile supply “the problem arises when customers are non-critical about the quality of the product and more focused on the price”.
He adds: “While blending, roasters are also keeping their costs down in some instances by mixing in lower grade coffees for sale to the non-discerning customer.
“In the UAE, this is also the case, more so compared to the rest of the world.”
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