The A Shot in the Dark Middle East winners for 2025 were announced 27 February 2025 at the official prizegiving 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!
Congratulations to all the competing roasters. And thank you to those who were able to join us at the Prizegiving.
From 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).
Thank you to our Judges: Andrew Nicholson (OMAN) Mike MacDonald (South Africa) Bogdan Prunila (UAE) and Ajey Pathuri (UAE)
And not to forget our Guest Judge for the Espresso Round, Aleksa Novicic, from La Cimbali.
This year we awarded Roasters who were part of Founding the competition and have entered for all three years. Dedication to the craft and to learning!
LEFT: Nasser, from Click Coffee, Oman, with Iain Evans. Right: Gideon Canido from Cafe Rider, Dubai.
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.
And then we got to the Winners Announcements!
Blending Champion 2025
Roasters Specialty Coffee House roasted by Denkayehu Desalegn, with Bogdan Prunila and Rasam Adabi , of CMI representing PUQ.
Cupping Champion
Jonalyn Dela Pena of Doppio Roasters with Yoseba from Sucafina Specialty
3rd Overall: Tadele Tashome of Haute Coffee Roasters pictured with Iain Evans (Coffee Magazine)
2nd Overall: Kemal Risyad of Archers (left) Pictured here with Franklin Carvahlo and Goutham Kumbargeri Srinath of Brewing Gadgets
And the CHAMPION OVERALL...
Jonalyn Dela Pena of Doppio Roasters! Pictured with 2023/24 Champion Ajeyudu Pathuri, Aleksa Novicic and Torsten Hvas (Loring Roasters)
A HUGE thank you to our sponsors:
Sucafina Specialty - for sponsoring delicious coffee for the last 3 years. Our 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!
Cimbali Group Dubai - To Aleksa for hosting us at JLT showroom for the Espresso Judging. And for the use of the amazing La Cimbali M200, which made the process a dream, being able to program all 3 groups with the same recipes.
Brewing Gadgets - To Franklin, Goutam, Ajey, Andy and Devbrat 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 during judging and on the Announcement Day. 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!
