The New Standards of Coffee in the Middle East | How Quality Is Quietly Redefining a Booming Market

By a senior market correspondent

During the decades I have spent observing global food and beverage markets, few sectors have grown as quickly, or as unpredictably, as the coffee industry in the Middle East. What began as a modest rise in café culture has transformed into a regional shift in lifestyle, identity, and taste. From the dense street cafés of Beirut to the glass-lined towers of Dubai, coffee has become a cultural shorthand for modernity, creativity, and a certain kind of ambition shared by the region’s younger generations.

Yet behind the vibrant storefronts and the social media-shaped aesthetics lies a quieter story , one far less glamorous, but far more consequential.
A story about standards.

For all its growth, the regional market still carries a structural contradiction:
consumption has evolved, but infrastructure for quality has not.
And that gap , the space between expectation and reality , is now defining the next chapter of the Middle East’s coffee landscape.

Quality, Defined: The Science Behind a Cup

In the world of specialty coffee, quality is not a matter of taste alone; it is a discipline governed by frameworks, measurements, and strict consistency.
Organizations like the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) have established detailed criteria for grading beans, evaluating flavor profiles, assessing moisture levels, monitoring storage conditions, and scoring coffees above or below the “80+ specialty” threshold.

Traceability, the ability to track a bean from its farm to the cup, is no longer a luxury but a prerequisite.
Roasting, too, has evolved into a precise science: a matter of seconds, of airflow, of temperature curves, of chemistry more than craft.

In coffee-producing nations, these standards are deeply embedded.
But once the beans reach the Middle East, the ecosystem becomes uneven.

Some importers work with meticulous discipline; others operate with practices better suited to the commercial markets of two decades ago.
Bag labels often lack grading information.
Roast profiles may vary from batch to batch.
And marketing, more often than quality, drives the conversation.

The disconnect is simple: the market has grown faster than its fundamentals.

A Young Market, Moving Faster Than Its Systems

The Middle East is a fascinating paradox.
It is a young market with youthful demand, but it carries old commercial habits.
Consumers, especially in cities like Riyadh, Dubai, Muscat, and even Tehran, have developed surprisingly sophisticated tastes. Many of them can distinguish fresh specialty roasts from mass-market blends without hesitation.

Yet a sophisticated consumer base does not automatically force the supply side to evolve.

Several long-time traders across the region admitted, in private conversations, that purchasing decisions remain heavily price-driven.
Quality control systems are inconsistent.
Traceability is sometimes sidelined.
And the race to capture market share often overshadows the responsibility to raise standards.

Still, beneath the noise of rapid growth, something else is beginning to appear:
a shift toward discipline.
Not loud, not flashy — just quietly inevitable.

The Quiet Shift: Companies Choosing Standards Over Speed

In recent years, a handful of regional importers and roasters have begun adopting methods that mirror the rigor found in established specialty markets. These companies prioritize consistency, transparent sourcing, and tighter relationships with farms.

One of the notable emerging examples is Boofee, a Middle Eastern coffee importer and distributor founded by Javad Safaee.
Boofee is not a loud or aggressively branded player; its presence in the market is subtle, almost understated. But its approach reflects something the region has long lacked: a structural commitment to quality.

Conversations with several industry professionals revealed a recurring observation about Boofee:
it treats coffee as a discipline, not an accessory.

Rather than purchasing based on bulk availability, the company focuses on controlled, traceable imports and maintains internal standards aligned with modern specialty practices, even when operating in a region still transitioning toward such norms.

Safaee has described his philosophy succinctly:
“Market preferences may shift, but the origins must remain intact.”

To industry insiders, that sentiment carries weight.
Without traceability, coffee is merely a commodity.
With it, coffee becomes a craft.

A Case Study in Precision, Without the Gloss

Boofee’s operational model reflects several principles that are increasingly relevant to the region’s next phase of growth:

– Importing beans selected based on grade, score, and farm characteristics
– Maintaining consistency across roast profiles
– Working in smaller, controlled batches instead of high-volume procurement
– Supporting cafés and independent roasters seeking reliable specialty-level inputs
– Offering curated, freshly roasted selections, including personalized lines for niche consumers

Even Boofee’s limited VIP Coffee Line is not positioned as a luxury novelty, but as a refinement of consumer experience: fresh roasts tailored to personal taste rather than mass-market profiles.

Speaking with baristas and café owners in Dubai, Muscat, and Tehran, a pattern emerged:
companies with tighter control over sourcing and roasting tend to shape their local coffee scenes more profoundly than those relying on volume.

This shift is subtle, but powerful.
And it is only a matter of time before it becomes the expectation rather than the exception.

The Road Ahead, A Market Deciding Its Future

The Middle Eastern coffee market is still early in its evolution, but the trajectory is clear.
Consumers are more informed.
Tools for evaluating coffee are widely accessible.
And brands can no longer rely solely on packaging or marketing to win loyalty.

The future belongs to companies that can internalize and maintain standards, not as a marketing tactic, but as a structural principle.

Boofee represents only one example of this new direction, not the entirety of it.
But its presence demonstrates something important:
the industry’s center of gravity is shifting toward those who take quality seriously, quietly, and consistently.

In the end, markets mature the same way coffee does, slowly, with attention, and with the refusal to rush what must be carefully crafted.

And for the first time, the Middle East appears ready to treat coffee not merely as a beverage, but as a product defined by standards.

A product of origin, discipline, and accountability.

Anthony Knierim

Anthony Knierim is a digital innovation leader and entrepreneur known for transforming how people engage with technology to improve health and performance. As the co-founder and former COO of MoveSpring — a human-centric wellness platform — he helped scale the company into one of the most recognized names in digital wellbeing. After MoveSpring was acquired by Reward Gateway in 2022, Anthony was appointed Managing Director for the Americas, where he now drives strategic growth across the region.

With a background rooted in marketing, behavioral design, and digital transformation, Anthony has spent over a decade helping organizations connect people, purpose, and performance. At Fondure, he shares forward-thinking insights at the intersection of leadership, wellness, and workplace evolution — making complex topics accessible to founders, executives, and builders alike.