RAW Coffee Company was founded in Dubai in 2007 by Kim Thompson, with Matt Toogood joining a couple of years later; the two New Zealanders now run it as equal partners and both hold what is, by their own account, the first SCA diploma awarded in the Middle East and North Africa. RAW roasts fresh every week at its warehouse in Al Quoz, “the heart and soul of everything we do”, and the same industrial site holds a custom-built roastery café of about 13,500 square feet and an SCA training campus for professionals and home enthusiasts.

The three pillars are local, ethical and direct: roasted in Dubai, fair to suppliers, staff and environment, and bought through close relationships with growers at origin. The café has a kitchen for breakfasts and lunches, “not just your average coffee, not just your average café”. RAW has won four UAE Coffee Champion titles and first and third places at the World Coffee Championship, was named Best Homegrown Coffee Roastery at the BBC Good Food awards in 2022, received Proudly Dubai recognition the same year, and Kim Thompson was Mastercard’s Female F&B Leader for MENA in 2023.

The range runs from three house blends, among them the Working blend made for flat whites, to single origins from Colombia, Rwanda, Mexico, Ethiopia, Guatemala and Yemen and a rare and experimental line of fruit-fermented Colombian lots. Its Ugandan Elgon took first place in the experimental category of Uganda’s Taste of Harvest 2026. The shop also stocks MilkLab non-dairy milks, brewing equipment and espresso machines.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: RAW Coffee Company