![Makomborero Nyakotyo (DMCC), Mel Winter (Coffee Magazine) Mr. Ahmed Bin Sulayem (Executive Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of DMCC), Ibrahim Al Khulaifi (CEO, Empire Coffee), Emanuel Velora (Gold Box Roastery) Mr. Saeed Alsuwadi (Director of Agri Commodities), Iain Evans (Coffee Magazine)](/tempfiles/1_pagegallery12908.jpg)
![Mel Winter (Coffee Magazine), Hamdan (Limited Coffee) Gabriel (Cafe Rider) Mahdi Alyami (Alba Coffee Roasters) Neil Maree (Genio Roasters), Makomborero Nyakotyo (DMCC), Bogdan (Crown Muscat International) Mr. Ahmed Bin Sulayem (Executive Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of DMCC),Mr. Saeed Alsuwadi (Director of Agri Commodities), Fahd Saleh (Profiles Roastery) Abdullah Kaled (Profiles Roastery) Iain Evands (Coffee Magazine) Gabriel Kisworo (Nightjar Roastery) Emanuel Velora (Gold Box Roastery) Nasser Al Maamari (Click Coffee) Reyson (Section Coffee Roasters)](/tempfiles/1_pagegallery12909.jpg)
![Mr. Ahmed Bin Sulayem (Executive Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of DMCC) and Iain accept 3rd place on behalf of Archers Coffee](/tempfiles/1_pagegallery12910.jpg)
![The Winner! Emanuel (Gold Box Roastery) and Iain](/tempfiles/1_pagegallery12911.jpg)
![Head Judge, Mike Mac Donald accepts his certificate from Mr. Saeed Alsuwadi](/tempfiles/1_pagegallery12912.jpg)
![Franklin and Gautam (Brewing Gadgets) Emanuel, Iain, Stefaan Esprit (BWT) Mel and Maria Barquin (Sucafina Specialty)](/tempfiles/1_pagegallery12913.jpg)
![Congratulations Gold Box!](/tempfiles/1_pagegallery12914.jpg)
![The opening remarks and welcome from Iain](/tempfiles/1_pagegallery12915.jpg)
![The judges discuss! Sherryl Napit, Ginny Tan, Maria Barquin and Andrew Nicholson](/tempfiles/1_pagegallery12916.jpg)
![Head Judge, Mike explains the specialised scoring for A Shot in the Dark](/tempfiles/1_pagegallery12917.jpg)
![Csaba Henter from La Marzocco, UAE](/tempfiles/1_pagegallery12918.jpg)
![Stefaan Esprit from BWT](/tempfiles/1_pagegallery12919.jpg)
![The Judges](/tempfiles/1_pagegallery12920.jpg)
![Mr. Ahmed Bin Sulayem (Executive Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of DMCC)](/tempfiles/1_pagegallery12921.jpg)
![Mel shows off the beautiful coffee pouches, customised for ASITD ME and flown in from El Salvador!](/tempfiles/1_pagegallery12922.jpg)
![Andrew giving some insights from the judges](/tempfiles/1_pagegallery12923.jpg)
![The cupping lab!](/tempfiles/1_pagegallery12924.jpg)
![Ginny pulls the shots for the espresso round](/tempfiles/1_pagegallery12925.jpg)
![Giinny, Mel, Reem (Seven Fortunes) and Sherryl](/tempfiles/1_pagegallery12926.jpg)
![Howzit Dubai! The Coffee Mag team is here!](/tempfiles/1_pagegallery12927.jpg)
A Shot in the Dark, Middle East - the first ever roasting competition in the Middle East - came to a stunning conclusion at the DMMC Coffee Center, Dubai yesterday, with Emmanuel Velora of Gold Box Roastery taking the top honours!
Runner Up: Empire Coffee, Bharath Chandagalu Govindanayaka
Third Place: Archers, Kemal Risyad
What an incredible week.
To each of the founding roasters of this competition that will hopefully grow a rich culture in the region for many years to come, we are grateful to you for entrusting us with your roasts.
CMI Roastery, Oman | Nightjar Coffee Roasters, UAE |
Wings Coffee, Qatar | Gold Box Roastery, UAE |
Seven Fortunes Coffee, UAE | Profiles Coffee Roasters, Saudi Arabia |
Click Coffee, Oman | Intellect Coffee, UAE |
Peacock Roaster, Saudi Arabia | Cafe Rider, UAE |
Specialty Batch Coffee, UAE | Empire Coffee, Qatar |
Alba Coffee Roasters, Saudi Arabia | Limited Coffee, Al Ain, UAE |
Archers, Sharjah, UAE | Section Coffee, Abu Dhabi, UAE |
To the panel of judges. Mike Mac Donald, Ginny Tan, Sherryl Napit, Maria Barquin and Andrew Nicholson. Wow. The dedication you showed in treating each coffee with the utmost respect was inspiring. The beauty of this competition is the blind tasting and you truly gave your all with each coffee.
Thank you to all our amazing partners on this project, there are a lot of moving parts and without support from these amazing businesses we could not have held this competition. We are eternally grateful and excited for the future!
To our hosts at the DMCC Coffee Centre, what a privilege to have this as the home of the first ever roasting competition in the Middle East. The entire team went above and beyond to make this competition a success.
Thank you to Ahmed Bin Sulayem, CEO of DMCC and Saeed Alsuwaidi, Director Agri Commodities for being there for the whole day to celebrate coffee! And thank you to the Team on the ground, Mako, Rejoice, Richell, Nawal and Samer who ran everything so smoothly.
Thank you to everyone who came through for the day to learn together and network and build community. We are already planning on how to make this experience more interactive next year!
This was an incredible start to a hopefully long tradition.
Please click on the first image to open the gallery below (otherwise the captions looks strange!)