Boon Coffee is a specialty coffee roaster and supplier in Dubai founded by Orit Mohammed, who comes from Harar in Ethiopia, where coffee trading began. The business draws on generations of coffee knowledge from farmers, traders and drinkers in her family, roasts organic coffee in the UAE on European equipment, and buys its single-origin beans directly from Ethiopia, paying farming communities fairly and investing in their education. Alongside its own cafés it supplies hotels, restaurants and cafés across the region, and 2020 was the year it grew into retail.

The first branch is on the ground floor of Lake Plaza in Jumeirah Lakes Towers, serving coffee and fresh pastries. On the Palm Jumeirah there are two cafés, one by the entrance to the Depachika food hall in Nakheel Mall and one in the food district at The Pointe, with cakes and desserts. The Meadows Souk café is a neighbourhood spot for the early crowd, and at Mall of the Emirates Boon sits inside Crate & Barrel with a bistro-style menu of breakfast and light lunch, pastries and gluten-free options. The cafés brew V60, syphon, AeroPress and French press as well as espresso.

The range is Ethiopian at heart: house blends such as Premium, the first blend Boon created, single origins from Yirgacheffe, Sidama, Guji and Kaffa, a Colombia and a Brazil, a Turkish grind, a cardamom Arabic coffee, and green beans for home roasters.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Boon Coffee