I first met Herman briefly at the old branch of Coffee Architecture, at that time he brewed an Ethiopian Cup of Excellence on a Cortado roasted by Archers, needless to say it was excellent. They were on the process of moving to a new location at Saadiyat Island overlooking the beach. He had invited me to come back and check the new cafe out.

This was pretty much last year, and until recently I had a chance to visit them again and try out some of the new drinks on the menu - this included a Freddo Espresso. More on how that is prepared in a later blog post. Whilst conversing with him briefly, I felt that he had an interesting story to share. So without much ado, this is Herman’s coffee journey so far.

My name Is Herman Jubya, and I am from Uganda. I am a graduate in Information Technology and I never realized that there was so much to coffee, the whole process from crop to the cup.

I came to UAE more than two years ago with a plan to work in the field of IT since that is what I graduated in. I overheard my room mates one day a discussing about the requirement of baristas and their salaries. In my case, curiosity did not kill the cat, and I had to research on who this Mr. Barista is exactly and what he does.

Every now and then I used to hang out with a friend from high school and he would take me to some cafes. He would order his favorite coffee, Americano, and he liked it black. I tried it but it wasn’t to my liking. However, I never connected the dots that the person who brewed the same Americano is a barista.

The more I read up on baristas, the more I saw opportunities to add some kind of value to the coffee supply chain and liberate my people back home from middlemen who take advantage and buy beans at very low prices.

I had desires to become a barista, but I did not have the required skills nor the experience which some companies were looking for. After a month or so, I started working as a server at Haagen Dazs, and learnt a lot in terms of customer service.

After almost a year, my passion for becoming a barista lead me to join Coffee Architecture, a very well known specialty cafe in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. They accepted me even though I lacked the expertise in the specialty coffee industry and this was officially the beginning of my barista journey.

It’s been a year and a half and I truly enjoy serving coffee lovers. I would like to thank my boss, Nooran Albannay, for believing in me, and my team for the continuous support. Not to forget that all of this would not be possible without our loyal customers. Above all, I am very grateful to God for the gift of life.