Weigh everything
Every station carries a 0.1-gram scale. “About right” is not a number, so it never appears on a recipe card.
profilo-studio
Made by ariya-tech.net
Roast days: Tue + Sat
Riyadh · KSA
02 The Roastery
It started as a spreadsheet with 412 rows.
Two years of cupping scores and water math, then a lease on Tahlia Street and a fifteen-kilo roaster.
Before the bar had a name it had a spreadsheet: 412 cupping rows that Salem and Noura built over two years, scoring every lot they could get shipped to Riyadh. Column F held the score. Column H — “would we serve this to a stranger?” — is the column that still runs the company.
Qahwa District opened on Tahlia Street in 2021 with nine coffees and one rule: if a batch drifts off its curve, it goes to the training lab, not the shelf. Four years on, the rule is unchanged — and the training lab drinks very well.
Cupping log · 2019–2021
LotScoreServe?
ET-11884.50—
CO-20486.25✓
KE-09087.00✓
BR-15582.75—
HN-07885.50✓
ET-41288.25✓✓
Row 412 — the lot that signed the lease.
The house measurements
Light, so you can read it
We roast to make the farm legible, not to hide it. If you taste smoke, we made a mistake — tell us.
Freshness is a date
Roast date printed on the front of every bag, never the bottom. At week five, whatever is left moves to the cold-brew keg.
Water is a recipe too
We remineralise RO water to 78 ppm and publish the mix. Your kettle at home can hit it with two sachets.
The log, by year
2021
Opened with nine coffees and a second-hand fifteen-kilo roaster.
2022
First direct contract — Danche washing station, Gedeb, Ethiopia.
2023
The upstairs training lab opens; Noura passes her Q-grader exam.
2024
Thirty-eight wholesale partners across Riyadh. The spreadsheet finally gets a database.
2025
A second roaster arrives. Capacity doubles; the rule about drifting curves does not change.
The people on the scales
SA
Salem Al-Otaibi
Co-founder · Green buyer
NR
Noura Al-Rashid
Co-founder · Head roaster, Q-grader
TM
Tariq Mansour
Bar lead
RZ
Reem Al-Zahrani
Training lead
Your counter, our curve.
Wholesale onboarding opens at the start of every quarter — four slots, first cupping on the house.