by Rebecca Anne Proctor
  • 5 minute read
  • January 17, 2025
The signifance of coffee culture in the Arabian Gulf

Across the Arabian Gulf, a common sight is a gathering of men at a café or out in the desert, drinking freshly brewed coffee – or qahwaas it is known in Arabic. 

Often, men in these settings will socialise in coffee houses while playing games and smoking from water pipes known as shisha or argille. It has also traditionally been the backdrop for more serious matters, such as settling marriage contracts or peaceful negotiations between conflicting parties. Besides these, coffee is also a critical aspect of hospitality in Arab societies and is considered a ceremonial act of kindness. 

“Coffee is part of our culture; it’s embedded in our daily lives and plays an important role,” says Ibrahim Al Mallouhi, an Emirati entrepreneur who founded Espresso Lab in Dubai in 2013. “We use coffee as an introduction to meet new people. When you meet new people in Dubai, you always meet them over coffee. For us, it represents generosity.”

As a child, Ibrahim used to sit next to his grandmother while she roasted Arabic coffee. She taught him various techniques for roasting the green beans she used. Ibrahim was instructed on how to listen to certain sounds and watch for particular a colour on the beans, signifying they were being roasted in the right way. He also learned traditional methods for cooling and then grinding the beans. The coffee was then served in his mother’s majlis, where many influential people would gather. 

Ibrahim recalls how he would help serve the coffee. His mother would teach him how to identify various coffee notes, developing his palate and taste. These experiences inspired his early love for the beverage.

In the years that followed, Dubai saw numerous coffee chains open, but Ibrahim wasn’t impressed. He was seeking something that better captured the unique and flavourful essence of Arabic coffee in particular. 

Amid the ever-expanding slew of new hotels and resorts that often characterise the landscape of the Arabian Gulf, coffee culture, stemming from the Arab world’s rich tradition and heritage around coffee drinking, continues to be on the rise. 

In both new and established hotels, men in traditional garb greet visitors with a small cup of freshly brewed coffee as a welcome gesture. Meanwhile, at new, contemporary cafés around the region, the tradition of coffee drinking is preserved in sleekly designed coffeehouses with local and international brews. 

These include Ibrahim’s Espresso Lab or the recently opened Emirati-owned SOUB, a sleek, ’70s-inspired speciality coffee haven in Khawaneej, Dubai. But the list of new coffeehouses in the UAE is almost endless.

What sets the Espresso Lab apart since Ibrahim opened it over a decade ago is its cosmopolitan offering – coffee beans from around the world that have brought artisanal coffee to the UAE. He has even started his own coffee farm in Panama, a country from which he sources much of his coffee.

How and why did coffee become such a crucial part of Arab culture? The beverage most likely originated in the East African nation of Ethiopia, situated in the Horn of Africa and long considered the birthplace of coffee. But, while the original coffee plants were most likely native to Ethiopia’s western regions, it was actually in Yemen that they were cultivated into the beans we use today. As early as the sixth century BC, coffee has been recorded as a beverage. Its roots in the Arab world are thus particularly strong. 

From Yemen, coffee then travelled to Mecca in Saudi Arabia’s Hejaz region, as well as to Egypt and the Levant. In the middle of the 16th century, it reached Türkiye, and from there, Europe, where coffee drinking quickly became popular. 

Arabic coffee has also been declared an Intangible Culture Heritage of Arab States by UNESCO. Every year, on March 3, Yemenis commemorate Yemeni Coffee Day, a national festival to celebrate the cultivation of coffee. 

Over the years, the significance of coffee in the Arabian Gulf has continued to go beyond its base function as a beverage. Today, it is considered a vital component to how most people make a first connection with visitors or reconnect with family and friends.

In Saudi Arabia, a country undergoing massive socio-economic transformation, a freshly brewed pot of coffee with dates is always kept ready at every hotel to serve guests and visitors. The Kingdom has its own unique heritage with coffee beans, which are cultivated largely in the southwestern mountainous regions of Aseer, al-Baha and Jazan Provinces – areas that are, perhaps unsurprisingly, located close to Yemen. 

Coffee is deeply rooted in Saudi culture and families in most of the Kingdom’s 13 regions savour the hot beverage made from specially brewed Saudi coffee beans during the late afternoon and early morning each day. 

One relished centuries-old tradition is Shabbah, where a group gathers around to enjoy a coffee ceremony, using special equipment to prepare the coffee, including al-majl, a flat circular iron for roasting beans. During the ceremony, gathers listen to poetry readings and stories, and share news with each other. All ages are welcome, and a specific time is usually set for the gatherings, depending on how busy participants are with work. Dates, tea and fruit are also always on hand to sweeten the experience. 

The prevalence and popularity of such ceremonies kept very much alive in Saudi Arabia, wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for the Kingdom’s coffee farmers – men who largely reside in the country’s southwestern regions and have made picking coffee beans and cultivating the land their life’s work. 

In regions such as Jazan, coffee production is increasing, as demand in the Kingdom and internationally has risen. Hussain Hadi Al-Malki, an award-winning coffee farmer and owner of Mefraz, a local coffee brand from Jazan, perfectly explains coffee’s fundamental role in the region and beyond.

“Coffee is part of our culture,” he says. “We want to preserve it, not just for Saudi Arabia, but to share it with the rest of the world.”

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