The 2017 edition of Dubai International Coffee & Tea Festival (DICTF), the Middle East’s only exhibition dedicated to coffee and tea, opened yesterday (December 14, 2017), at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre.
The show will run through to Saturday, 16th December and will end with the prize distribution on the stage of the debut Dubai International Coffee Championships.
A very impressive line-up of visitors waited with bated breath for the opening with the smell of fresh coffee wafting through the entire course of the trade centre halls. The festival has a line-up of activities and events that will keep the audience of visitors engaged and involved throughout the show.
The Dubai International Coffee & Tea Festival has been instrumental in bringing Specialty in the coffee and tea industry to the fore in the region.
The event throws a spotlight on the flourishing regional and global coffee and tea industry. Visitors at the event are benefiting from enormous networking and learning opportunities through engagement with industry experts, growers, brewers, roasters and sommeliers.
Dubai International Coffee Championships, the UAE National Tea Masters Cup, Brewers and Roasters Lounge, and Coffee Training particularly drew a large footfall during the first day. Skilled baristas from around the world are competing in the Dubai International Coffee Championships and while UAE’s top tea masters at pitching their talent at the UAE’s National Masters Cup.
The newly introduced contests are taking place for the first time alongside DICTF. The winners of Dubai International Coffee Championships will get a chance to take home part of the prize pool of USD 25,000, the largest in the history of global barista competitions, which is set to grow year on year, while the UAE National Tea Masters Cup is being sponsored by ‘The Tea Company’ and ‘Pure Leaf’ by Unilever Gulf.
Anselm Godinho, Managing Director of International Conferences and Exhibitions, DICTF’s organizer, said: “DICTF is an opportunity to raise the level of global appreciation for coffee and tea as a profession, a commodity and as a business.
Additionally, it offers UAE-based baristas a global opportunity to take the center stage with their international counterparts and benefit from knowledge sharing and exchange of expertise and experiences that come from rubbing shoulders with some of the leading experts and the world’s best baristas.
The festival does not only display a range of services and products necessary to building a successful coffee business, but it also highlights the trendsetters who create innovative ideas to aid in the development of the entire local and regional industries.
With all that being said, customer engagement and product knowledge in this business is critical to improving quality. ‘Demand Better’ is our key phrase in this event and it will serve to inject Quality in the fastest segment of the hospitality industry.”
DICTF is also hosting the region’s only Specialty Coffee Association-certified (SCA) training in barista skills, coffee brewing, roasting, sensory skills, and green coffee grading, among others.
