Coffee Revolution in Dilijan: a café where new ideas are being tested

About 1.5 years ago a revolution took place in Dilijan: only the coffee revolution. Two young Armenian girls, Mariam Sinanyan and Ani Harutyunyan, brought to Dilijan the best coffee ever known in the world as the third wave of coffee. Their café, Caffeine Brew Lab, looking more like labs, has become one of Dilijan’s few entertainment places where it is possible to have evenings, chat, and just drink delicious coffee.

“It’s almost impossible to find good coffee in Yerevan and, in general, in Armenia. Such quality coffee can only be found in Georgia, in one café. Here’s an idea: import high quality coffee to Armenia and prepare it on your own. Our cafe is a brew cafe, that is, a barn, “explains Ani.

Besides the fact that everything is concentrated in Yerevan, and we just had the idea to create something in one of the provinces, it was obvious for us that realization of our idea in Yerevan is almost impossible. We did not want our cafeteria to be a place for people to hurry to eat or drink coffee on their feet. We wanted it to be a place to enjoy coffee, chat with each other, “said the girls.

Dilijan captured them with beautiful nature, good people, lack of competition and a little romantic idea to escape from Yerevan. Besides, serious investments are needed in Yerevan to establish a new business. In Dilijan they are considerably smaller.

In order to reach Dilijan, coffee crosses thousands of kilometers, crossing the ocean. Then everything is done at the place with accuracy and great love.

“Of course, it was risky for us to bring” specialty “coffee to Dilijan, because we understood that it would not have so much demand here. For example, we had planned in advance that we would only serve coffee. Then it turned out that here the demand for tea is bigger. We also started making tea from herbs. The most important thing in this case is patience.

Nothing at Caffeine Brew Lab is going to be done in advance. coffee, tea, sweets and cuts are made only for the order, before the eyes of the customer, noting not only the result, but also the process.

Artist Ani and economist Mariam opened their dreams cafe in the place of a former meat shop, where almost nothing has changed in terms of design. Besides the fact that the style of the Soviet shop was in line with the café’s style, the girls also wanted to continue the story of the old building.

The economist Mariam needs her education too as she does all business-related calculations and paperwork. She says there is nothing difficult.

During this time we have understood one thing: planning everything is meaningless. Actually, almost everything changes. The process determines the final result. But nevertheless, let’s just imagine what will be happening, for example, in five years, let’s say we want our team to be a professional, consisting of people who love their work.

Full text in Armenian