From bean to mug, we've been inside Coffee Planet's Dubai roastery to see the journey every bean takes to make our morning pick-me-up. The factory, located in Dubai's Jebel Ali Free Zone, is one of the largest home-grown roasteries in the Middle East. Following the roasting process, we followed the bean from crop-to-cup in the homegrown coffee manufacturer's factory. And Coffee Planet is showing no sign of slowing down. The Middle East’s leading 100 per cent Arabica, specialty coffee roaster, has announced its Dubai-based roastery’s bold expansion plans, which is expected to increase its output in the next few weeks. Scheduled for completion in this month, the development will boost Coffee Planet’s manufacturing capacity at the 26,000 square foot roastery, increasing roasting capacity by 50 per cent, with a rise to over 300 tonnes per month. "This is an exciting time for the Coffee Planet team. Our plans for expansion have been in the pipeline for a while, and we’re all looking forward to the new additional equipment to the Roastery," Coffee Planet's Managing Director, Robert Jones, said in a recent statement. "In a region where the demand for high-quality, directly sourced products are on the rise, we plan to enhance the level of competition amongst brands locally by applying the best practices and the latest technologies in this industry." During our tour, <em>The National</em> met Cleia Junqueira, the Coffee Planet Roastmaster. Junqueira is responsible for the hands-on tasks of roasting coffee, which involves consistently checking the coffee on its journey from cupping through to brewing. According to Coffee Planet, "Every coffee origin needs a bespoke roasting process, as each bean is unique, which requires Celia to run cupping experiments to find the most effect parameters for each varietal."
