Pillar guide

The complete guide to corporate coffee and karak in Dubai (2026)

Corporate coffee in Dubai comes down to four routes: an office coffee subscription (Desk AED 599, Floor AED 1,150 or HQ AED 2,200 a month), a machine on its own at AED 199 a month, a coffee cart or barista bar from AED 3,000, and karak or gahwa stations and trays from AED 250 a tray. This guide explains each route, what it costs per head, how to choose between them and what procurement teams ask for. It uses only the prices published on this site, all before 5% VAT.

Last updated 12 October 2026. Prices as published on this site, ex 5% VAT.

1. How Dubai offices and events buy coffee

Offices usually buy coffee at three different moments, and each moment is a different purchase.

The daily pantry. The same people, the same kitchenette, coffee and karak every working day. This is bought as a recurring service, usually by an office manager or a facilities team, and what counts is reliability: beans that arrive on time, a machine that is serviced and one invoice a month.

The meeting. A team breakfast, a client meeting or a training day. It has a headcount, a date and a time, and it is often arranged at short notice by an executive assistant. It is bought per head or per tray, and what counts is that it arrives hot, on time and in the right quantity.

The event. A launch, an open day, a conference, a staff party or a stand at a trade show. It is bought as a package with a date, a venue and a crew, normally by a marketing or events team, and it needs the longest lead time.

Three local habits shape the order in Dubai. Karak chai and Arabic coffee with dates are familiar hospitality, so the request is often more than espresso. Calendars cluster around festivals, national days, trade shows and Ramadan. And finance teams expect a VAT invoice with a TRN, often against a purchase order.

A common mistake is buying the wrong unit. A price per person, a price per tray, a price per month and a price per package are four different things, and comparing them directly is how a budget goes wrong. The rest of this guide keeps the units apart.

2. The four routes

Every ROAST x Cha Cha Chai corporate service sits on one of four routes. All prices are published, in dirhams, before 5% VAT.

Route 1: office subscription (Desk, Floor, HQ)

A managed monthly service for the office pantry, priced by tier rather than per head. Desk is AED 599 a month for about 15 people, Floor is AED 1,150 for about 15 to 50 and HQ is AED 2,200 for 50 or more. Each tier includes specialty beans, karak and gahwa volumes sized to the team, delivery and servicing, and one VAT invoice. The bean-to-cup machine is placed free, with no deposit, on a six-month plan, and a twelve-month term saves 8%. Read the office coffee subscription page for the full wording.

Route 2: the machine on its own

If you already have a beans supplier, or you only want the equipment, the bean-to-cup machine is AED 199 a month with no lock-in. It is the same machine that is placed free on a six-month plan. See the office coffee machine page.

Route 3: coffee carts and bars

A ROAST barista cart brings the café to your venue. A half-day cart is from AED 3,000 (1 barista, up to 4 hours, about 100 guests) and a full-day cart from AED 4,500 (2 baristas, up to 8 hours, about 200 guests). The Coffee + Karak Experience is from AED 5,900: the Signature Bar plus a live Cha Cha Chai karak and gahwa station with a dedicated server and Cha Cha Chai street food (vada pav, samosa pav and momos, with quantities confirmed on your quote). An extra hour is AED 400, an extra barista AED 600 and custom branding starts at AED 750. Delivery, setup and teardown in Dubai are included. Start with coffee cart hire, the cart cost page and the event coffee bar, or exhibition stand carts for trade shows.

Route 4: karak and gahwa stations, flasks and trays

For hospitality without a barista. A 1L karak or saffron chai flask pours about six cups and is from AED 40; a gahwa flask with dates is from AED 55 and a 1L specialty filter-coffee flask from AED 65. A 10-cup office karak tray is from AED 250, with samosa-and-pav bundles extra. A standalone live karak and gahwa station is AED 900 a day and does not include street food. For majlis service, a station is from AED 45 per person (minimum 30) and a hosted majlis from AED 85 per person (minimum 40). Delivery in Dubai for trays and flasks: AED 250 minimum per delivery, free delivery above AED 500, flat AED 40 below that. See karak trays and flasks and gahwa and majlis service.

Between the routes sit the per-head packages for meetings and breakfasts: Coffee Break from AED 45, Working Breakfast from AED 55 and Full Meeting Day from AED 95 per person (minimum 8 people), and corporate breakfast catering from AED 45 per head. See meeting and coffee-break catering.

For reference, we hold 4.5–4.9★ on Google across our Dubai cafés (October 2026), and everything is made in our licensed Dubai kitchen with the same recipes as the cafés.

3. What it costs per head

The routes use different units, so the fair way to compare them is to multiply them out. These examples come straight from the cost per head guide, before 5% VAT.

30 guests, per-head meeting packages. Rate times headcount.

100 guests at a majlis.

Karak trays by headcount. Trays are not sold per head. Each holds 10 cups and the tray count follows your headcount.

Office subscription per person a month. Plans are priced per tier, so the cost per person is the monthly price divided by the people on it.

Coffee carts, as a guide only. Carts are priced per package. A half-day cart at AED 3,000 works out at about AED 30 per guest at 100 guests, and a full-day cart at AED 4,500 at about AED 22.50 per guest at 200 guests.

A "from" price is the starting rate for that service at the size shown. Your date, address, headcount and menu choices set where your quote lands.

4. How to choose

Most buyers face one of three choices. Each has a decision guide with the trade-offs and a worked example.

• Desk, Floor or HQ?The choice is mostly headcount. Who each plan fits, what is included and the cost per person.
• Office coffee machine or barista service?Trade-offs, published prices and a worked 30-person example.
• Coffee cart or coffee station?Barista cart or self-serve flask station: guest counts, space and prices.

A simple way to start: if the same people need coffee every day, look at a subscription; if you need a drink for one meeting, look at per-head packages, flasks or trays; if there is a date, a venue and a crowd, look at a cart or a station. For a mixed event of 50 to 200 people, plan coffee and karak for an event sets out flasks, trays, stations, majlis and carts by headcount.

5. The seasons calendar

The UAE office year runs on a handful of dates. The UAE corporate calendar 2026-27 puts them in one table, with a calendar file for Outlook, Google Calendar or Apple Calendar. Ramadan and Eid depend on moon sighting, so those dates are expected dates only.

• Diwali, 8 November 2026Karak and samosa-and-pav trays for the office.
• UAE National Day, 2 December 2026Karak and gahwa stations, dates and coffee carts.
• GITEX Global, 7 to 11 December 2026Stand coffee carts with a barista bar and karak station.
• Christmas and New Year office partiesCarts, stations and trays for parties, client mornings and town halls.
• Year-end staff partiesA coffee cart, live karak station or karak trays.
• WHX Dubai, 25 to 28 January 2027Stand hospitality with a barista bar, karak and gahwa station.
• Ramadan, expected on or around 8 February 2027Daily iftar and suhoor supply from AED 38 per person per day.
• Ramadan planning guideKarak, gahwa and dates for office iftar and suhoor.

6. By sector

Different sectors buy for different reasons. These pages cover the sector-specific questions.

• Real estate launches and sales centresCarts, karak and gahwa for launches and broker events.
• Coworking spacesPantry plans and member-event carts.
• Clinics and hospitalsStaff-room coffee and doctor-meeting breakfasts.
• Universities and schoolsOpen-day carts, graduation karak and staff-room plans.
• Car dealerships and showroomsLaunch-day carts and service-lounge machines.
• Conferences and hotel eventsBarista bars and karak or gahwa stations.
• Runs, cycling and community daysCarts and self-serve karak stations.
• Graduations and school eventsCarts and majlis stations for graduations and parent evenings.

7. By area

Delivery and service are local. These pages cover office coffee and karak for the main business districts, and our corporate coffee supplier page covers the whole service in one place.

• Dubai Science ParkFrom the café in your building.
• Dubai Silicon OasisOffice coffee and karak for DSO teams.
• Dubai Marina and JLTPantry plans, flasks and trays.
• Sheikh Zayed Road and DIFCOffice coffee along the Sheikh Zayed Road spine.
• Deira and Business VillageThe café inside Business Village.
• Business BayOffice delivery for the towers.
• Downtown DubaiOffice delivery near Burj Khalifa.
• Media City and Internet CityOffice coffee and catering.
• Al Barsha and TECOMBarsha Heights and nearby offices.
• Al QuozOffice coffee and karak delivery.
• Healthcare City and GarhoudIncluding Festival City and the airport area.
• Dubai South and Expo CityQuoted on request.

Dubai is our home, but enquiries from Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and the rest of the UAE are welcome. Tell us the address, date and headcount and we confirm what we can do, with travel, crew and logistics shown on your written quote.

8. How an order works

In short: you send an enquiry with the date, address and headcount; we reply within one working day (Monday to Friday) with an itemised written quote, valid for 14 days, with 5% VAT shown separately; you approve it; for coffee carts and live stations a 50% deposit confirms the date; we confirm the details in writing; we prepare in our licensed Dubai kitchen and deliver or set up; and you receive one VAT tax invoice with our TRN and no service charge. Coffee carts and live stations need from 5 working days' notice. Purchase orders are accepted.

The full sequence, with what to have ready, is on how a corporate order works.

9. Procurement checklist

For a procurement or finance team, these are the points to check against any supplier, and what we provide.

• VAT tax invoice with TRN. Every booking gets one, with the 5% VAT shown as its own line.
• Purchase order. Purchase orders (POs) are accepted. Send the PO or LPO number with the enquiry.
• Billing entity. Give the entity name exactly as it should appear on the invoice, and the email address that should receive it.
• Procurement pack. Trade licences, VAT registration and compliance documentation are available on request for your vendor file.
• Food standard. We are a licensed halal UAE F&B operator, so everything served is halal.
• Quote terms. An itemised written quote, valid for 14 days. A 50% deposit confirms coffee carts and live stations.
• Lead time. From 5 working days for carts and live stations; major exhibitions need two to three months.
• What is not in the price. VAT, anything below a minimum, and locations outside Dubai are shown separately on the quote.

We also publish a two-page corporate event planner (PDF) with a checklist and the published price ladder.

10. Frequently asked questions

11. Glossary

Not sure what a doppio, a dallah or a "pax" is? The coffee and karak glossary explains 52 terms in plain English. New to karak? Read what is karak chai.

Related

Keep planning

• Corporate coffee and catering hub →
• Corporate catering cost per head →
• How a corporate order works →
• Desk, Floor or HQ? →
• Corporate coffee and catering FAQ →
• Planning an event? The complete guide to coffee carts and karak stations →
• All guides and planners →

• Licensed halal UAE F&B operator
• VAT tax invoice with TRN
• ROAST since 2018 · Cha Cha Chai since 2013
• Dubai-based