Dubai sells world’s most expensive coffee at Dhs3,600 a cup

Selling for nearly $1,000 a cup, a cafe in Dubai is offering the world's most expensive coffee, brewed from Panamanian beans sold at a premium price.

"We felt Dubai was the perfect place for our investment," said Serkan Sagsoz, co-founder of the Julith cafe with the pricey offering.

Located in an industrial neighbourhood that has become a hotspot for coffee lovers, Julith plans to serve "around 400 cups" of the precious beverage starting on Saturday, Sagsoz said.

For a price tag of Dhs3,600 (around $980), the brew offers an experience of floral and fruity flavours reminiscent of tea.

"There are white floral notes like jasmine, citrus flavours like orange and bergamot and a hint of apricot and peach," said Sagsoz, who previously ran a cafe in his native Turkey.  "It's like honey, delicate and sweet," he said.

Dubai notched a Guinness record for the world's most expensive cup of coffee last month, when Roasters offered one for Dhs2,500.

The Julith cafe bought its beans at an auction in Panama after a tough battle that lasted many hours and drew hundreds of bids.

It claimed to have paid the highest price ever for coffee. Twenty kilogrammes of the beans went for around Dhs2.2 million or $600,000, Julith said in a press release. Asian buyers, Emirati coffee enthusiasts and coffee bean collectors have since reached out to the cafe in the hopes of securing some of the "Nido 7 Geisha" beans, which are grown on a plantation near Panama's Baru volcano.

But the cafe said it does not plan to share its treasure, beyond a small amount.

Agence France-Presse