So we mentioned Turkish Coffe and Starsucks, here we talk about THEE number one beverage consumed in the Middle East: Nescafe !!!
I can safely say that this is indeed a social phenomena ! And I think Nescafe is making hell lot of money from this region alone.
While Turkish coffee was the defacto standard that you expect when someone offer you “coffee”, now Nescafe is the coffee. In any restaurant or meeting, if you ask for coffee, expect to see some form of Nescafe instant coffee.
It’s fascinating, and I tell you I’m one of those addicted to the disgusting taste of nescafe ! not bad at all, and very convenient for a lazy guy like me who don’t want to bother with other types of coffee.
What’s more amusing is that there are plenty of commerically available instant coffee brands in the Middle East, yet the average Arab consumer is so faithful to Nescafe that they even call other brands of instant coffee as “nescafe”.
Well, there’s always a room for one more cup of nescafe now isn’t there ? 😉
Stuff Arabs Like 
I see, since how long do you have nescafe in Middle East? In spain we have since very long ago. Is one of the companies wich “controls” the world, as some might know well. Here also happens that we call “Nescafe” to all kind of instant coffee. But since 10 years ago it’s losing power and people still prefer traditional coffee, nothing like a good columbian or arab coffee (depending on likes)
@EL Guia:
Nescafe been in the Middle East for a very long time, since the beginning. It was popular, but the popularity it gained in the last 10+ is HUGE !
Seems like Spain and the Middle East have things in common 😉
@h3rm1ny3w
I see, what will be behind the sweet image of Nestlé? I never trust too much those big companies (in fact, at this moment doesn’t come to my mind any company that can be “bigger” than nestlé). In my opinion is sad tht in Middle East it is so popular, in spain is well known the quality of arabian coffee.
About things in common, yeah, a lot, more than spanish think, more than arabs think, and more than the rest of the world think. I remember once came one boy to work with us in my company for 3 months, he was from Lebanon but living in Belgium for many years, he was everyday saying how similar spanish and arabs are, besides the different cultures, we have many similarities, not only in the hot weather, but also in the temperament of people, the music, the “environment”, even in the way of talk (you know where comes the famous spanish “Olé” or the expresion “Ojalá”? both from “Allah”, and many many things that right now i don’t remember, but in almost every spanish sentence there’s a reference to arab culture). We must also be conscient, that besides the destruction made by northern christian kingdoms after middle age in spain, this was a muslim country for 700-800 years, that means all our middle age, where muslims, jews and christians lived along together, they were neighbours living in peace and sharing cultures (how bad nowadays some people can’t do it) And people thinks this was lands of knights and castles, for know how was middle age here, take a look on Alhambra palace, knights and castles were only in the northern mountains, a tiny part of the peninsula.
Sorry for talk about the similarities more than about Nescafé, but this fact of being so similar and ignore it was what made me find this blog, hehe, i want to know what so much we have in common, and learn new things is always good!
@EL guia:
I totally agree with you in here, Spain (formerly known as Andalus by the Moorish people) was the gateway to Arab/Muslim cultutre (which was very advanced at that time)to europe, so it was like a melting pot back then. There are lots of similarities indeed, but in today’s globalized world, the sentiments towards the east are not the best.
Side note: Whoever approved the ALI CAFE concept my be set on fire
@hamdanism:
Yeah, it is very sad see how some people in spain ignores our historical background, they only say “i just know we are half moor, half european” (true is we are part moor, part sephardi jew, part arab, part celtic and part nordic), but you know, in the most recent years, young people knows a little more about ourselves, it is true that sentiments towards east are not the best, but… at least in spain, we have the same about the west. Some older people think different, but it is normal after 40 years of ultra catholic and racist dictatorship, fortunatelly, spanish people is not like that, and we open home to both eastern and western people, in fact, in last years and because of what happens in the world, spain is more on “east” side, we were the first to condemn what israel (aka USA) does with Palestine, and many other things that now i don’t remember. There’s also bad that sometimes we are in hands of stupid governments, and things like that made us eat a taliban bomb in madrid, but you know what, people was more angry with the use than with taliban, and we blamed usa and not taliban, and we kicked that government, and gave political protection to many muslims who were being “investigated”, now they (the USA) say that mediterranean vessel in spain is the most important center of islamic terrorism in europe, but people already is not so stupid 😉 seems we awoke our memories from Al Andalus, and the true is that, negate Al Andalus would be negate half of our history, and all our middle age!
KJ, what is the ALI CAFE concept?
@EL guia: excellent words, specially regarding Al-Andalus, it’s a huge shining history of Spain, and if one ignores his history, then he won’t have a bright future.
Ali Cafe is new instant coffee similar to Nescafe. They have lame commercials on TV 🙂