As the trend for speciality coffee continues to flourish amongst consumers in the region, brands are turning to local coffee companies for freshness and quality at competitive prices, according to Jones. He comments: “We believe it is also beneficial for brands to work with local suppliers, where appropriate, to help sustainability.”

Jones adds: “We have noticed an ongoing shift towards coffee quality in areas including the sourcing of the beans and training for baristas to ensure the end consumer receives a great cup of coffee.”

Kerr makes the point that while coffee shops are buying better quality single origin coffees, the focus on quality and on delivering “an amazing cup” is uneven. “A lot of cafés are still trying to get their footing before they can truly master their craft, and provide the same cup of coffee one would expect from a Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) trained and certified barista in most coffee capitals. However, the potential for the UAE to become a coffee destination is quite good as these cafés will eventually acquire the expertise to deliver quality on par with a cup of coffee you would get from an SCA certified barista in London, Melbourne, or Auckland.”

Alkuino tells Caterer that a focus on well-educated baristas is now “a must for coffee shops”. He remarks: “Baristas are not only preparing coffee drinks, but also educating customers on what coffee they drink: beans origin, altitude the coffee grows at and flavours that this parameters bring out in the beans.”

Raw’s Toogood agrees, adding: “Speciality cafés are trendy of course; however it’s much easier to call yourself speciality than have a speciality coffee.

“In the Middle East, the barista role is becoming a recognised profession rather than an allocated task — this will see the quality of coffee served improve quickly. The Specialty Coffee Association of America and the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe merged to lose an “i” and become the Specialty Coffee Association. This will be exciting over the next few years as programmes like coffee education and training will be globalised providing more, much-needed, consistency and hopefully better skilled baristas.”

Alkuino highlights the promotion of speciality coffee by so-called third wavers growing around the world. “The third wave coffee is a movement that considers coffee as an artisanal product like wine rather than a commodity. Third wavers are endorsing improved plant growing and harvesting, fair trade, roasting in small batches and large focus on coffee preparation,” he says.

Demands on suppliers

Apart from high-quality coffee beans at reasonable prices, clients are looking for “full coffee solutions” to ease their operations, reports Alkuino. “That would include coffee supply, coffee equipment supply and maintenance and comprehensive barista training,” he says.

Siddle also says that due to the current political and economic climate, suppliers are under increasing pressure “to manage their business through expertise, foresight and experience to protect consumers/F&B outlets from the fluctuations on price and supply”.

He explains: “Historically, the immediate response of the supply chain to price increases was to look to exchange origin type A with a less costly origin type B. This was to keep the customer price within tolerance. However, as taste is becoming much more the driver for blends, the ability to swap is less of an option. This is because, price and quality do not vary as dramatically as was once the case. Coffee roasters, and all parts of the supply chain, need to be able to take a longer term view on sourcing. This is to ensure that, as green coffee is such a vital part of the cost structure within each cup of coffee sold, their chosen coffee supplier has sufficient heritage combined and principlws to not always put their own interests first.”

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