The Barn Berlin Experience in Dubai
It was a great end to the weekend with a visit to The Barn Berlin UAE now making its debut in Dubai. The Barn is not new to this region, the coffee is quite popular and can be found in many cafes across Dubai. Some of them are Brew Cafe, Froth & Pour Cafe, Around the Block - That at Mall of the Emirates, and Milk Bar to name a few.
The Barn Berlin, as the name suggests, is a Roastery based in Germany, with multiple cafes in Berlin. They always had a local presence in the UAE, and now they have opened their first cafe outside of Germany.
This announcement was made almost a month ago followed by THE BARN x Comandante Brew Down to celebrate the barista community of Dubai. First place wins a limited edition Comandante C40 Mk4 Grinder, number 01 of 30, straight from the master’s hands in Bavaria, Germany.
They are located in Al Khazzan Park right next to Hapi in a similar Japanese style bungalow surrounded by caged fossilized stones that blends in with the park. There’s also a pathway through the grass that leads to the cafe with a beautiful seating area under a big tree straight from the movies. This is going to be such a cool spot when the winter kicks in.
I highly recommend visiting Hapi as well, they are well known for their homemade ice creams and excellent breakfast spread. Some of you might not know this, they also have bone broth on the menu. Delicious and full of health benefits.
The debut was a full house. I’m glad I got to book our 20 mins with Ralf to get a chance to know him on a personal level. My visit was with two coffee experts: Lameen Abdul Malik and Mark from Nitro Coffee Solutions. You will be reading about Mark very soon on the blog.
Ralf brewed for us a very special Yemen Alchemy Masterpiece scoring a staggering 90+. This coffee is triple fermented grown at a height of 2300 masl. This is the first time they are offering a Yemen and this is very special indeed. Need I say, one of the best from this origin. This coffee had complex notes of mango, rooibos, cherry with a nice body.
He used 18g of coffee and 300g of water, I lost count on the number of pours and the brewing time since he was also explaining about the coffee simultaneously. They also have cakes and other freshly baked items, like the German cheesecake, carrot cake and the most interesting was the Schnecke.
The Barn’s core value is to focus on sustainability particularly at the coffee farm level. The Barn Forest is their notable sustainability project in collaboration with Daterra, coffee producer in Brazil, which is also part of their Tree_lion Sustainability Project. The Barn’s aim is to plant 40,000 trees over the course of five years.
This Brew Down was a super fun event with a good turnout. The judges: Ralf from The Barn, Daniel Peterson from Hacienda La Esmeralda, and Gautam from Brewing Gadgets. Eighteen participants lined up one-by-one to brew the wonderful anaerobic processed Juanachute from Costa Rica.
After an intense three hours, Gian Parado took first place, followed by Hanzel Benzon and Luisa. And since I couldn’t taste any coffee during this event, I settled for a delectable Ethiopia Chelbesa on a Flatwhite. Have you been to The Barn Dubai yet? You need to visit for the full Berlin experience.
