I just had an Idea as I was posting this, I’m going to focus on two main posts per month where I’ll write about a cafe and a roastery of the month. Space Cup was my cafe of this month and Grandmother is the roastery of this month. Pretty sure there are a lot of cafes to write about but I know sooner or later I’ll run out of roasteries to write about. Similarly, I am also planning to focus on the people behind the coffee, if only my day job leaves me enough time for it.

Grandmother Coffee Roastery has been on my radar for a long time now. Only reason being, it used to be right next to my previous work place i.e. Al Quoz, but it wasn’t open to the public. Which meant going to Nostalgia Cafe or ordering from Sippy. Low and behold, their new place is voluminous and spacious. There’s something about visiting a roastery + cafe when they brew the coffee for you. It’s somehow always better.

I am a sucker for a well-designed barista bar and this is by far one of the top ones. The hanging clay pots* above the bar give it a nice 3D wave like effect. Seats are set up by the bar designed for consumers to interact with the baristas as they are preparing your drink. I like this concept and it works in my favor as it gives me a chance to note down their top secret recipes. Jokes aside, you can be loaded with the recipe and knowledge but without the proper technique and practice, its all useless in any form of art.

*I know a place that serves delicious sweet lassi in similar clay pots like this. DM me on IG if you would like to know.

What was my caffeine journey here like? Started off with an Ethiopian Cortado prepared by Kim, the drink was so good that I had to buy some beans for home brewing. This is my usual story and I just need a reason to buy more coffee. Taking Zarak’s recommendations really seriously and since he bought the same Ethiopia, the choice was simple. I had to reconsider however as the roasting was done a month ago.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, but since I consume my coffee very slowly, I wanted something more freshly roasted. The Ethiopia Uraga Indigo Lot 0412 caught my attention, this is a Carbonic Maceration Natural process and is part of their Selection Series. And since experimental processed lots are in the rave these days, I went for it. And it’s definitely something special. More about this coffee here.

Dan brewed another Ethiopia from the Selection series, this was the Ethiopia Koke Amber Lot PR12 on his favorite brewer - the Aeropress. This is also a Carbonic macerated processed coffee, notes of sweet peaches and grapes and a tingly pleasant acidity working in the background. He takes his Aeropress seriously and loves the inverted method. He was very kind to share his recipe:

Coffee: 12g
Grind: Medium Fine
Method: Inverted on the Aeropress
Total Brew Time: 2 minutes
Pour 50g of water into the coffee and stir well. This is your bloom. Wait for 40 seconds. Pour water until the scale reads a total of 200g. Place the filter cap on the brewer and flip the Aeropress. Wait until 2 minutes and start pressing gently.

Very simple recipe and highlights the notes of this coffee. I also use it for the Ethiopia Indigo I mentioned above.

It’s surprising how time flies when you talk coffee with like-minded people. And the team at Grandmother will keep you involved in riveting conversations revolving around farming, coffee processing, roasting, knowledge and learning in the coffee industry, and we even discussed about using the right beans in a Spanish Latte. Some of you might think why this matters because at the end of the day the amount of milk, sugar and cream will hide the nuanced notes of the coffee.

Spanish experts will know that an Ethiopian or a fruity based espresso might taste odd in the drink but pair it with a Brazilian or El Salavador and that would be the ideal choice for it’s chocolatey profile. Yes, how dare I discuss about Spanish lattes on this blog but people forget that this drink might be single handedly one of the most sold coffee drink in all of specialty cafes here in the UAE. Has a study been done on this? If not, who wants to join forces with me?

Heading the place is Fredrick Warrens who started off his coffee career at a washing station, dealing with different farmers and educating them on improving the farming conditions and producing high quality red coffee cherries. This is what makes this industry different, you have to maintain the standard - quality over quantity. He low-key reminds me of Mokhtar Khanshali and if you don’t know who that is, please pick up a copy of his book, The Monk of Mokha. You will thank me later and it will leave you wanting some delectable Yemenia.

They have a selection of non-caffeinated drinks for those who don’t want to order coffee. I’m not sure why you wouldn’t order the coffee here but if you don’t then you need to try their Cascara based iced tea topped up with some sparkling water. It’s sweet, tangy, fizzy and reminded me of a Tamarind infused drink. Their second drink is, if you guessed it from the color, yes - its Hibiscus. Grandmother doesn’t like to keep things simple and this one is oozing with Berry tart like acidity complimenting the Hibiscus sweetness giving it a bitter sweet finish. The ingredients that go inside are a secret, but if you really want to find out, you’ll need to visit them.

Coming to the roastery, they have two Giesen mammoths - 15kg and 6kg. Going on a bit of a tangent now which reminds me, Geisen is doing something amazing, they have a free 30 day mini course on roasting. Coming back, they have a process for profiling coffees, over six different profiles to check how the coffees taste. The profile selection is not an individual decision and based on inputs from the team, which is very important for Freddie to come to a conclusion. He has taken a few pointers from his Cup of Excellence cupping sessions, he prefers doing it blind and dumb. Dumb as in no one talks until the cupping is done, take notes and then compare later. What I didn’t know is that Cup of Excellence don’t do experimental processed coffees. For them, its a defect. This was definitely news to me.

One question I ask all the Roasters - what mineral water would you recommend for home brewing? They almost always recommend Al Ain and Arwa for brewing. A cup of coffee is 98% water so before you go spend on a really expensive grinder or other equipment thinking it’ll brew you a better tasting coffee, you might want to take a closer look at the water you are using. If the coffee tastes hollow or flat, then try changing the water. Since not everybody can afford a cafe grade triple filtration reverse osmosis system at home, try using natural mineral water mentioned above if you reside in the UAE. If you are a purist and you don’t like the mineral content in some of the locally available water, you can buy distilled water and use Third Wave Water which adds the ideal mineral content and creates the optimum water for brewing coffee.

And for the finale, Freddie brewed some freshly roasted Panama Geisha from Ninety Plus Coffee by the one and only Joseph Brodsky. Anyone who knows Joseph Brodsky know that these Gieshas are always consistent in blowing your mind. For me, this cup of coffee was simply too intense and let’s just say I was not ready. Since this was brewed slightly hotter, it reminded me of a burst of tropical fruits and as it cooled down the intensity also reduced uncovering more of the pineapple and chocolate, sweet from the start to finish. This could very well be the Ruby from their Exclusive Series.

Meet the team