The International Coffee and Tea Festival, taking place between 12-14th November, is the most reputed caffeine expo in the Middle East, showcasing different tea and coffee brands. The agenda also included a barista championship, a latte art workshop, and seminars on how to make coffee. It’s a wonderful opportunity to meet baristas, latte artists and world-famous brewers.

Free entry and free coffee? We decided we had to go!

Barring the fact that it took us a while to get to Meydan Gallery, we had quite an experience. Walking in, even before our eyes caught sight of the stalls, we smelled the tantalizing aroma of coffee in the hall. I had imagined a cute little wooden setting with our famous coffee brands giving us a free tasting of their new blends and little goody packs.

As we walked around, I realized I was completely mistaken. The set up was like a grand-scale exhibition with caffeine brands we had never heard of.

It wasn’t all Starbucks and Caribou, but local brands from Vietnam, Columbia and all over the world. Most of them either worked as wholesale distributors or were trying to launch their products/cafe in the Middle East.

While tasting their coffee samples and gorging on exotic munchies, we ended up chatting with a bunch of people at a lot of counters. The “Ibrik” (the utensil Turkish coffee is prepared in) world champion, Mr. Karthikeyan Rajendran from Tamil Nadu, India showcased his Turkish coffee-making talents – timed and judged by coffee-tasting experts [Who doesn’t want that job?]. After his performance, we spoke with him briefly to hear his inspiring story: He worked at the Leela Palace, Bangalore, and his passion for the art of coffee too him to a lot of places around the world, finally bringing to Dubai where he is currently working at the Dubai Airport.

We headed for home intrigued by the intricacies of coffee-making and of course, wide-eyed and happy [after all those coffee samples, what do you expect?]. We’re grateful to the coffee-makers of the world – they make the world go round. Take a peek at Charu Kumar’s pictures from the event below:

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