Name of business owner: Mohammed Behlim, Ahmed Behlim, Mohiuddin
Name of competing roaster: Angelo Benedict Abordo
When did your roastery start? Started February 2020
And, as the owner, why a coffee roastery?
The idea is to start up a Roastery that can bridge our local market to access great selection of coffees that is locally available.
Question for roaster: How did you learn to roast coffee?
I learned roasting coffee in Philippines, at Jack and the First Crack, where I also had the privilege to travel different regions and exploring potential of our local coffees, roasting and tasting it together with the farmers.
And what drew you to roasting as a profession?
Coffee roasting is challenging and at the same time fulfilling when you profile a coffee and unlocking its potential to express its best qualities that our customers enjoy. The craft of roasting is like an unending journey that keeps me challenged and motivated.
What do you love most about the coffee roasting industry?
Coffee roasting and Specialty Coffee in general is a community and relationship industry. Coffee Connects people and what’s best for me is that coffee makes me travel and meet a lot of people with different experiences and sharing knowledge to one another.
In your opinion, is roasting more science or more art?
I think Coffee Roasting is more scientific, but still a combination of both. While coffee could be very scientific, one couldn’t play around in roasting if he/she doesn’t know the basics of how and what is happening in coffee inside the drum and why it’s tasting that way. Similar to art where one needs to understand a good combination of colors and figures to express his/her feeling on the art that could be positively viewed by others.
Was there a particular cup of coffee that changed the way you think about coffee?
Yemen. I think that Yemen has a huge potential that can be on par with geishas and other renowned coffees in the world. With it’s extreme growing conditions, a lot of Yemeni coffees could perform far more than 88pts in a cupping table. Yemeni coffees also gave me the idea of roasting it differently to achieve its best potential, that is so far from the usual roasting approach and never being afraid to navigate on the different shades of a roast.
What is your focus as a roastery? Wholesale to cafes? Do you roast just for your
own cafe? Sell online?
With focus on wholesale coffees as the core business, we also roast coffees for our own cafes and will be selling soon online on our web platform.
May you please tell us a bit about your team? Who makes the wheels turn in your
operation?
Our Team is comprised of two areas: Operations (cafe), and Roastery (production). The Roasting team is comprised of 4 persons where all can roast and perform other duties like packaging, quality control, and general equipment maintenance.
With all the different processing methods now available to roasters, is there a processing method that you enjoy working with? And why?
Naturals, aside from its taste, I also love to roast natural processed coffees. Natural coffees are so diverse these days ranging from anaerobic and with other fermentation styles which enhances or alters that natural characteristics of a coffee which I think is fascinating. This type of processing gives opportunity for me to learn, while experimenting on different roast techniques to achieve its sweetest spot.
How have you seen coffee culture in your region grow over the last few years?
Being in Oman for few months now, I can see that the coffee industry is starting to grow and coffee community is getting stronger and more diverse. People are starting to navigate with different coffee profiles while staying curious about what’s new in the market.
Where are you located and can people come visit you?
I work at our HQ/Roastery in Al Ansab, Muscat, Oman. Can come visit me from Sunday to Friday
What makes your roastery stand out in a booming industry?
What makes us stand out is our straight forward approach in roasting. We take pride and believe in roasting our coffees to its best to express its own unique characteristics, and engaging to our partners and end-users to provide knowledge and recommendations on what and which coffees could work with a variety of applications and taste profile to match the customers needs. After-all, the focus and commitment to cater the market demands is a top priority in the business while educating consumers to better understand and appreciate the cup of coffees they are drinking from “usual” to “extraordinary” experience.
