Coffee in Dubai offers to the world.

A coffee shop in Dubai, which sells for almost $1,000 a cup, offers the most expensive coffee in the world, made with Panamanian beans that sell for a premium price.

The wealthy emirate is known for its extravagant projects, including a huge shopping mall with an indoor ski area, the world’s tallest building and an artificial island dotted with five-star hotels.

“The wait is finally over,” Serkan Sagsoz, co-founder of Julith cafe with the expensive offering, said in a Facebook video. “The most famous and highest quality coffee of all time has arrived at Julith.”

Located in an industrial neighborhood converted into a meeting point for coffee lovers, Julith plans to serve “about 400 cups” of the precious drink starting Saturday, Sagsoz told News.

“We felt Dubai was the perfect location for our investment,” Sagsoz said.

For a price of 3,600 dirhams (around $980), the drink offers an experience of floral and fruity flavors reminiscent of tea.

“There are white floral notes like jasmine, citrus flavors like orange and bergamot, and a hint of apricot and peach,” said Sagsoz, who previously ran a coffee shop in his native Turkey.

“It’s like honey, delicate and sweet,” he said.

Dubai last month secured a Guinness World Record for the world’s most expensive cup of coffee, when Roasters offered one for Dh2,500.

The new record astonished some people, although residents also said it was normal in a desert city with a luxury lifestyle.

“It’s very shocking but at the same time it’s Dubai,” said Inés, who did not give her last name.

“For rich people, it’s just another experience they can brag about,” added another resident, Maeva.

Julith Coffee bought its beans at an auction in Panama after a tough battle that lasted many hours and attracted hundreds of bids.

He claimed to have paid the highest price in history for coffee.

Twenty kilos of beans have been sold for about 2.2 million dirhams, or $600,000, Julith said in a press release.

Since then, Asian buyers, Emirati coffee enthusiasts and coffee bean collectors have flocked to the cafe hoping to get their hands on some of the “Nido 7 Geisha” beans, which are grown on a plantation near Panama’s Baru volcano.

But the cafe said it has no plans to share its treasure, beyond a small amount reserved for Dubai’s ruling family.

Coffee prices rise in the US

The expensive cup of coffee is offered as the The cost of roasted coffee has increased by 18.9%. in the US, according to the most recent Consumer Price Index data for September.

The average retail price of 100% ground roast coffee hit a record $9.14 per pound in September, labor data show. That’s far more than double the price in December 2019, when a pound of ground coffee cost just over $4.

Several factors are driving this increase. First, volatile weather, including heavy rain and drought in major coffee-producing countries such as Brazil and Colombia, is depressing crop yields, Phil Lempert, a food industry analyst and editor of SupermarketGuru, told News themezone.

Lempert also said that US tariffs on foreign imports are having an impact on domestic coffee prices. In 2023, the United States imported about 80% of its unroasted beans from Latin America, according to the USDA, with Hawaii and Puerto Rico being the only US states or territories that produce much coffee.

This year, the Trump administration has imposed new tariffs on several major coffee producers exporting to the United States. That includes a 50% tax on Brazil, which has led producers there to withhold shipments while they negotiate with American roasters over who will absorb the additional costs, according to investment bank UBS.

In a September report, the International Coffee Organization cited uncertainty around coffee tariffs as a catalyst affecting supply in the U.S. Coffee “cannot be produced in the U.S. on a large enough scale to meet domestic demand,” the trade group said.