Julith Coffee
Julith Coffee & Roastery is a Dubai-based specialty coffee company that, days after opening, bought the single most expensive coffee lot ever sold at auction: the 2025 Best of Panama record washed Geisha from Hacienda La Esmeralda, for $604,080 (Newsroom Panama, 2025, accessed 2026-07-22).
The company
- Where: the Al Quoz district of Dubai — a converted-warehouse area that has become the city’s serious-coffee neighbourhood. The venue is a two-floor roastery, brew lounge, and concept store built to look like a luxury brand (Coffee as Culture, 2025, accessed 2026-07-22).
- Opened: August 1, 2025 — just five days before it won the auction on August 6 (Most Expensives, 2025, accessed 2026-07-22).
- Who runs it: head roaster and co-founder Serkan Sağsöz, a three-time Turkish Barista Champion and former Turkish coffee-roasting champion (Most Expensives, 2025, accessed 2026-07-22; Coffee as Culture, 2025, accessed 2026-07-22).
- Backing: the company is backed by investors from Turkey (Qahwa World, 2025, accessed 2026-07-22).
The record purchase
At the 2025 Best of Panama auction, Julith bought the entire world supply of Esmeralda’s top lot — a washed Geisha from the Nido plot that scored 98/100, the highest in the auction’s history.
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Coffee | Washed Geisha, Nido plot, Hacienda La Esmeralda |
| Score | 98/100 |
| Lot size | 20 kg (the whole lot) |
| Price per kg | $30,204 |
| Total paid | $604,080 |
| Auction | Best of Panama, August 2025 |
Both the total and the per-kilo price are corroborated by independent reports (Newsroom Panama, 2025, accessed 2026-07-22; Qahwa World, 2025, accessed 2026-07-22). It roughly tripled the previous per-kilo world record.
What they do with it
Julith serves the coffee by the cup rather than selling the beans. From the 20 kg it plans to pour about 400 servings at AED 3,600 (~$980) each, with a portion of the beans set aside for Dubai’s ruling family; the café has turned down offers from collectors elsewhere (Most Expensives, 2025, accessed 2026-07-22).
The maths don’t add up to a profit on the coffee itself: 400 cups at ~392,000** — well under the $604,080 it paid, before any labour or overhead (Most Expensives, 2025, accessed 2026-07-22). The purchase reads as a bet on brand and attention — announcing a brand-new roastery to the whole coffee world in its first week — rather than a direct money-maker.
To verify
- How many judges gave a perfect 100? This note’s source-based reporting says the 2025 lot drew perfect 100-point scores from the international jury, but the count is disputed: the engine report says six judges scored 100, while our Best of Panama note says five. Neither figure is independently confirmed here — check the official bestofpanama.org results before quoting a number.
- Cup price and cup count (AED 3,600 / ~$980; ~400 cups) come from a single fetched source (Most Expensives); treat as reported, not confirmed, until a second independent source is checked.
Related
- Best of Panama · Hacienda La Esmeralda · Geisha · Panama Cup
- Serkan Sağsöz — head roaster and co-founder
Official links
Sources
- Julith Coffee & Roastery — official site — accessed 2026-07-23
- Best of Panama — official auction site — accessed 2026-07-23
- Newsroom Panama — $30,000 per kilo for Panamanian Geisha from Boquete — accessed 2026-07-23
- Qahwa World — Luxury Geisha coffee sale, Dubai 2025 — accessed 2026-07-23
- Coffee as Culture — $30,204 a kilo: what the world’s most… — accessed 2026-07-23
- Most Expensives — The world’s most expensive coffee — accessed 2026-07-23