• Preliminary rounds held on 17-18 September 2019 at DMCC Coffee Centre
• Over 700 coffee enthusiasts watched professional baristas compete over two days
• Finals to be held on 22 September for a coveted spot at World AeroPress Championships
• DMCC’s involvement in the project underlines its commitment to growing the speciality coffee scene in Dubai and the UAE

DMCC – the world’s flagship Free Zone and Government of Dubai Authority on commodities trade and enterprise – hosted the fourth edition of the UAE AeroPress Championship at its recently inaugurated state-of-the-art DMCC Coffee Centre in the Jebel Ali Free Zone.

The competition tests the baristas’ skills in brewing a cup of coffee using an AeroPress. With hundreds of coffee enthusiasts watching on, the national championship saw professional baristas from all over the UAE compete in a multi-round elimination process. The best three competitors from each emirate will proceed to the final round held at the new Raw Coffee Company facility on 22 September 2019.

“The 2019 UAE Aeropress National Competition is a fantastic event, and one that we were keen to support from the very beginning. Hosting the talented baristas, and hundreds of spectators from across the country at the DMCC Coffee Centre made perfect sense,” said Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, DMCC.
“Our strategic focus with the DMCC Coffee Centre is to attract, facilitate and drive global coffee trade. We have put the infrastructure in place to transform Dubai into a new global hub for coffee, attracting new trade flows to the emirate. An important part of this journey is supporting the local coffee industry. There is a longstanding culture of coffee in the United Arab Emirates, and this event marked an important moment in growing Dubai’s speciality coffee scene,” he added.

The 2019 edition of the national championship is organised by Mokha1450 Coffee Lounge, an Emirati coffee chain, in conjunction with the World AeroPress Championships. The winner will travel to London to participate in the World AeroPress Championships on 24 November 2019.

"We are delighted to be organising the fourth edition of the UAE AeroPress Championship – the biggest coffee competition the region has ever seen. I would like to thank DMCC for hosting the regional championships at the DMCC Coffee Centre, which definitely was the most convenient and reliable destination for bringing our coffee community together under one roof,” said Garfield Kerr, Chief Executive Officer, Mokha1450.

With Dubai now serving as a global gateway for coffee trade, the competition serves as a platform for connecting a wide range of stakeholders within the coffee community – from coffee farmers, roasters, and café owners to exporters, traders, and retailers – creating many business opportunities across the industry.