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Dubai Spills the Beans

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Dubai Spills the Beans THE ITINERARY U.A.E. Dubai's newly opened Coffee Museum houses both traditional Arabic and international coffee implements including beans from African and South American countries (bottom). DUBAI SPILLS THE BEANS SIPPING COFFEE FROM AROUND THE WORLD AT THE U.A.E’S FIRST COFFEE MUSEUM TEXT & PHOTOGRAPHS BY CharUKesI RAMADUraI t is a sobering thought that I owe my Ottoman Empire, and then to South this area in old Dubai, which was productive existence to a bunch of America. Coffee beans are said to established by Persian pearl merchants Idancing goats in faraway Ethiopia. have travelled to India in the folds in the 19th century, is an ideal setting Without my morning cuppa of joe (or of 17th-century Sufi saint Baba for this museum that was built up over three), I can barely be called a sentient Budan’s garments. On his way home seven years. human being even though I am up and to Chikmagalur, Karnataka, from a A heady aroma of coffee greets me about through the day. pilgrimage to Mecca, he came across as soon as I step in. It is late afternoon Now, about those goats: Legend the beans in Mocha and carried and a caffeine hit is long overdue; my has it that centuries ago in Ethiopia, some back. longing for a cup only intensifies thanks a goatherd named Kaldi noticed his While I already knew some of these to the scent wafting in the air. However, goats getting rather frisky after eating facts about my favourite beverage, I the tour comes first and instead of my a particular kind of red berries. A brew have just learnt a lot more at the newly nose I follow Mahmoud Bawardi, who made of the same red berries apparently opened Coffee Museum in Dubai, the is a public relations executive at the helped monks at a local monastery stay first of its kind in the Middle museum, into the majlis—a awake through night-time prayers. East. It is housed in a small sitting room near Few hundred years later these berries refurbished traditional the main entrance. found their way to the port of Mocha in Emirati home tucked Inside, Bawardi Yemen, where locals roasted them and away in the heritage explains the uses of made a beverage—the earliest version Al-Bastakiya the various Arabic of coffee as we know it was born. neighbourhood, also coffee implements Beginning sometime in A.D. 1400, known as Al Fahidi on display. There is a the coffee juggernaut rolled unstopped Historical District. massive iron griddle from Yemen to countries like Egypt, Filled with quirky cafés called al mehmas to Turkey and Europe though the and vibrant art galleries, used for roasting beans 32 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER INDIA | JULY 2018 THE ITINERARY U.A.E. Salam serves Ethiopian coffee to visitors at the museum (left), pairing the strong concoction with kholo or roasted wheat; Festooned with quirky coffee posters (middle), the museum's in-house café serves fresh brews from across the world (right). and a mortar and pestle for grinding cup. But first, I must taste some of the allowed to throw away my glass of milk known as al menhas. As with all popcorn in the bowl near the jebena, or for a tumbler of frothy filter kapi. In other exhibits on the ground floor, the the kholo, roasted wheat grains eaten to the room, I linger in front of a pretty dallah has pride of place here as well. balance the strong taste of this coffee. Delft blue painted piece from Holland, This traditional brass coffee pot with The adjoining central courtyard complete with windmills and streams, a curved, beak-like spout is still used has an over six-foot-tall, custom-built and a couple from Germany fashioned across the region to brew and serve Egyptian coffee machine that looks out of copper bullets, made during coffee, especially to guests. Poured into almost like a small throne attached the Second World War when metals dainty ceramic cups known as fenjan, to the wall. Abdulhamid Awad, the were scarce. Arabic coffee is thick and bitter and barista from Egypt, explains that in his A single gallery on the museum’s usually served with dates instead of country coffee is made in an ibrik, a second floor is filled with literature and sweeteners like sugar. Bawardi also metal pot with a long wooden handle, posters, including one that earnestly tells me that according to the norms which is placed on a bed of sand heated extols the “medical benefits of being of Arabic hospitality, the gahwa, by burning charcoal. The process seems addicted to coffee.” As if I need such Arabic for coffee, keeps flowing, the complicated but I imagine people will urging. I could easily spend few hours fenjans refilled until the guest shakes go to quite a length for that perfect cup in this room, with its exquisite maps of the cup to indicate they’ve had their of coffee. coffee regions and charts detailing the fill. The hospitality I’d received in The lower level of the two-storey ‘shrub to mug’ process. Dubai so far notwithstanding, this museum has three more rooms divided Hanging from the skylight here concept alone is enough to make me into Middle Eastern Antiques and are miniature flags of coffee-growing want to settle down here. International Antiques. Between nations and I look for the Indian Arabic coffee is not the only kind of them, there is an interesting display of tricolour, spotting it as I walk to the last coffee one can taste at the museum. coffee implements and utensils, used stop of my tour, the small café across the In the adjoining room, I am welcomed for roasting, grinding, brewing and corridor. It stocks samples from around with a smile by Salam from Ethiopia serving. The collection is small but the globe and the barista fixes me a (or, Salam the Coffee Princess, in her varied, from vintage European coffee cup of his finest Colombian. A floating words). She has a dallah, known as tins to Yemeni clay pots and Turkish poster in front of me says ‘Roasting jebena in Ethiopia, and several ceramic coffee bean roasters with folding Coffee, Brewing Harmony.’ Ah well, fenjans neatly arranged on a table in handles. My particular favourite is the what better reason than world peace to front of her. My first thought is that room with the hand grinders. imbibe this drink of the gods?¾ she looks like she stepped out of the The sight of all these grinders painting hanging on the wall behind immediately takes me back her—that of an Ethiopian lady in to childhood memories of my ESSENTIALS traditional costume serving coffee out grandmother using a cast-iron of a jebena. handheld grinder—probably of antique Open Sat-Thu 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Her Ethiopian coffee shot is fragrant value today—as the aroma of freshly entry free; coffeemuseum.ae; and flavourful, with more than a hint of roasted coffee beans tickled my senses +9714-3538777. cardamom, and I reach out for a second making me long for the day I would be 34 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER INDIA | JULY 2018.
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