The A Shot in the Dark Middle East winners for 2025 were announced last night at the official prize giving held at the Brewing Gadgets Experience Lab in Dubai.
It was an incredible community event, where Coffee Roasters, Competitors, Sponsors and Judges gathered to taste the Top 5 cupping coffees, the Top 5 espressos, and for us to hand over the Prizes and Awards for the very deserving winners!
A huge thank you to Brewing Gadgets for hosting us at their beautiful Experience lab - a must-visit if you are ever in Dubai!
The Roasters!
Left to Right: Jonalyn Dela Pena (Doppio Roasters), Gideon Canido (Cafe Rider), Chard Gallo (Brewlab), Denkayehu Desalegn (Roasters Specialty Coffee House), Franciny Torres Corrales (El Matador), Frederick Adam Ruben (Benchmark Coffee), Peter Akingbade (Laura Cafe and Bakery), Nasser AlMaamari (Click Coffee), Kemal Risyad (Archers Coffee).
Judges: Andrew Nicholson (OMAN) Mike MacDonald (South Africa) Bogdan Prunila (UAE) Ajey Pathuri (UAE)
Nasser, from Click Coffee, Oman, with his "Dedication to Excellence" award for competing in all 3 ASITD competitions!
Gideon, from Cafe Rider, Dubai, with his "Dedication to Excellence" award for competing in all 3 ASITD competitions!
Special mention must go to Empire Coffee, Qatar, for also attaining their "Dedication to Excellence" award for competing in all 3 ASITD competitions, unfortunately they were unable to attend.
Guest Judge on Espresso, Aleksa Novicic, from La Cimbali.
Best Espresso: Roasters Specialty coffee house roasted by Denkayehu Desalegn, with Bogdan and Rasam, CMI representing PUQ.
Best Cupping: Jonalyn Dela Pena with Yoseba from Sucafina Specialty.
A HUGE thank you to our sponsors:
Sucafina Specialty - for sponsoring delicious coffee for the last 3 years and this year's Head Judge, Mike MacDonald said “It’s the best coffee we’ve ever had in the competition “ To Yoseba, Maria, Elisa and the whole team… we thank you! It is a significant investment in the competition and we could not run A Shot in the Dark without Sucafina. And that decaf!!!! Sublime!
La Cimbali - To Aleksa for hosting us at JLT showroom for espresso judging. And for the use of the LACimbali M200!
Brewing Gadgets - a huge thanks to Ajey, Andy, Devbrat, Franklin, Gautam - for use of BG Experience Lab, and their support for the last 3 years and for always helping us with every bit of support that we need. Special mention to Khabir for his assistance in the lab. We love you Brewing Gadgets!
Loring Roasters - a new Sponsor this year - highly committed to our vision for the competition and we really enjoy doing business with them and thank them for their support. Thanks to Torsten for coming all the way out from Europe for this event!
Bluewater and NIA - thank you for the water! Rhandir and team, the Liquid ROC vials and the Cafe Station made sure water was the same for each and every competitor and judging - which is a critical part of the competition.
Puq - To Thomas and Almar in Netherlands, and to Bogdan and Rasam from CMI here in UAE - we are so grateful for your support of the competition… sponsoring a Puq press prize and for judging and Rasam for being our competition barista - we thank you!!
Ecotact - The Ecotact roasters bundles that you all received is a small sample of the incredible range of protective coffee products that Ecotact supply. To Mr. Hanuman Jain, Abhishek and the team in India, we are so grateful that our precious competition coffee was so well protected, stored and transported safely thanks to you!
