Brand Dubai Celebrates Dubai’s Coffee Culture At Amsterdam Coffee Festival

Brand Dubai, the creative arm of the Government of Dubai Media Office, showcased the best of Dubai’s coffee sector at the Amsterdam Coffee Festival in the Dutch capital recently

DUBAI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 13th Mar, 2019) Brand Dubai, the creative arm of the Government of Dubai Media Office, showcased the best of Dubai’s coffee sector at the Amsterdam Coffee Festival in the Dutch capital recently.

The "Brand Dubai Hub" at the festival, which featured winners of the Dubai Loves Coffee competition, such as Nightjar, PDL Coffee, Farmers, The Espresso Lab, Home Bakery and AlChemy, offered visitors an experience of the creme-de-la-creme of Dubai’s speciality coffee scene.

Launched in December 2018, the Dubai Loves Coffee contest invited the Dubai community to taste coffee from 23 participating speciality coffee shops and vote for their favourite outlets in three categories. More than 7,000 coffee lovers participated in the voting. The winners won a spot in the 2019 Amsterdam Coffee Festival.

Nehal Badri, Director of Brand Dubai, said, "The Amsterdam Coffee Festival was an opportunity to tell the story of the unique innovation and creativity shaping Dubai’s speciality coffee landscape. Our participation in the festival was part of Brand Dubai’s efforts to showcase diverse strands of Dubai’s vibrant entrepreneurial culture as part of our ‘Proudly from Dubai’ initiative."

Two of the contest winners, Espresso Lab and Farmers, delivered individual talks on the topics of "Specialty Coffee – My Journey in the UAE" and "Blending Health with Speciality Coffee" respectively.

Ayesha bin Kalli, Senior Executive, Culture Diplomacy, Brand Dubai, said, "Participating in the Amsterdam Coffee Festival with Dubai’s best speciality coffee outlets helped us raise awareness of the vibrancy and verve of Dubai’s coffee culture. The response from the festival’s audience was in many ways overwhelming.

We were able to give the visitors at the festival an authentic experience of the unique combination of local experiences and global connections that describes Dubai’s coffee culture. The entrepreneurial spirit and creative dynamism of Dubai’s speciality coffee shops stood out at the Festival."

Winners of the Dubai Loves Coffee competition expressed their gratitude to Brand Dubai for the opportunity to participate in the Festival. Ibrahim Al Mallouhi, owner of Espresso Lab said, "It was a great initiative from Brand Dubai to sponsor the winning teams to participate in the Amsterdam Coffee Festival. This reflects the support that we have from our government as part of the directives of the Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum."

Faisal Al Marri and Faisal Al Ahli, co-owners of Farmers Coffee, said, "It was a real pleasure to attend the Amsterdam Coffee Festival along with other Dubai-based specialty coffee outlets as ambassadors of Dubai’s coffee scene. We were honoured to interact with some of the pioneers in this field and discuss mutual opportunities."

Abdulla Al Mulla, Managing Director of Home Bakery said, "We benefited significantly from the media and brand exposure we received in Amsterdam and back home in Dubai. One of the things we have learnt from our leadership is to always be ahead of the game. On a personal level, I was able to interact with a different demographic of business owners and consumers."

UAE artist Ghanim Mubarak sketched portraits on coffee cups for visitors while Emirati artist Hessa Al Awadhi’s digital sketch, which highlights the UAE’s rich coffee heritage, was displayed at the ‘Brand Dubai Hub’.