My Journey into Coffee

Despite my Lebanese upbringing, I wasn’t born drinking rakwe. Although, along with my friends, I was an early adopter of coffee as a social drink, it wasn’t until my early 30s that a real interest and genuine appreciation of ‘good’ coffee emerged. And by then, I was hooked.

At first, it was long blacks at Caspers in Achrafieh, and then, there was home experimentation with a French Press and moka pots. The discovery of single-origin beans and the wide range of tastes available was revolutionary in Beirut during the early years of this century, just as third-wave coffee was starting to make itself known.

From then on, every opportunity for foreign travel invariably involved not only live blues concerts but also visits to the best cafés and coffee bars.

New York, Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Rome, and Copenhagen all have deposited caffeine-scented memories within my heart.

Time well spent with Marco Bazzara at his SCA-accredited Barista Academy in Trieste, Italy, saw me pass beyond the ‘wannabe’ stage to become something altogether more legit.

At some point around 2016, the ambition to open my own café in Beirut grew. At the end of 2018, we opened The High Llama in Achrafieh, just a few hundred metres from where my friends and I first learned the pleasure of spending long hours over many hot coffees.

And now, living in London, we’re building a fresh and exciting new coffee legacy of our own, and we can’t wait for you to join us.