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AFP-Jiji DOHA (AFP-Jiji) – The Tawar Mall in Doha looks a lot like other unparalleled shopping malls that dot the landscape of Qatar, but hidden in one of its corners, a tiny cultural revolution takes place
There you will find Flat White, Qatar's first attempt in a hipster cafe
Customers can buy drinks such as a V60, Aeropress or Ginger Latte, select coffee beans from Colombia, Tanzania or from Peru, then sit down and drink
Or they can simply sip and admire the decor, all the concrete walls and contemporary suspended lighting.
In the background, we hear the familiar sounds of drinks that baristas prepare on machines costing $ 3,500. 19659002] "We did not have this hipster style, that is what was missing in Qatar," said Nbader al-Nuaimi, who co-owns Flat White with his wife Maryam.
Wrapped up with customers
Nuaimi, 35, is a coffee fanatic who has developed a pbadion for Weste An international version of the drink on his travels, particularly in the United States
39; an international insurance company, he discovers specialty coffees during business trips and decides to try to bring back the culture to his home.
He opened the first Flat White in 2012, and now there are three around Doha.
"After 17h in Europe, people will not drink coffee [but] have a beer, here coffee is our pbadion, we drink it at any time, we sleep at all times."
Coffee international style is filled with customers and in particular they are almost exclusively Qatari – men dressed in traditional white dresses and women in black abayas – In a country where locals represent barely 10% of the population.
"We love coffee, the atmosphere, the energy," says Shamma, 19, a student drinking a cappuccino and eating cheesecake with her friend Muneera.
"I've been to specialty cafes in London and I really loved them." It's becoming more of a social construction than a simple coffee. "
Sitting nearby, Mohammed engineers and Jbadim, 34, who says that Flat White made them Enjoy a different style of coffee
"They choose beans in special places. We realized that what we used to drink was not coffee, "says Mohammed, in reference to more widespread Western brands
Arab coffee was a mainstay of the culture of drink in the region for thousands of years. widely but prefer to do it at home.
Prices are not cheap. A Chemex coffee, made in a specially designed glbad bottle, costs 26 Qatari riyals – about $ 7.
A recent UBS Financial Services Group study found that a cup of coffee in Doha is the most expensive in the world, costing on average The diversity of restaurants is growing
Specialty cafes are also developing in Doha. In the Qanat Quartier, an upscale neighborhood with a small neighborhood in Venice, cafes with names such as Volume and Artist Cafe were born
. The emerging "hipsterism" is not limited to coffee. A boutique specializing in breakfast cereals opens its doors, as well as the first vegan restaurant in Qatar
and extends beyond the Gulf State, with Qatari coffee shops in London – in the exclusive district of Mayfair. press – as well as a gastro-burger restaurant near Harrods owned by Qatar.
But as for most things in Qatar right now, the food and beverage sector has been affected by the Gulf crisis of one year, in which Qatar's neighbors have cut all ties, accusing him of supporting terrorism and being too close to Iran – the charges are denied.
Qatar previously relied on its neighbors for most of its imports and has radically adjusted its sources. As part of efforts to reduce the country 's dependence on imports, Qatar would now like to open its first coffee roasting plants due to strong local demand. Speeches
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