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The world’s most expensive coffee beans Amanda Fisher (amanda@khaleejtimes.com) / 30 September 2013 With heart disease accounting for almost a third of all deaths in the country, a frappucino with more than a quarter fewer calories could be in order. Just days after World Heart Day, which fell on Sunday, coffee franchise Icons will launch in Dubai next week, with big plans to expand throughout the country and region — and fast. The founder and CEO Elena Weber, who at 27 may be one of the youngest such title holders in the world, is positioning the latest coffee shop cartel, which is already worth about Dh5 million, as a ‘healthy Starbucks’. “It’s a big thing, especially here in the region because of the diabetes issue, so we hope we can make a healthy change … it’s so surprising when you see even children here are getting diabetes…. I wanted to open the first outlet in Germany, but because (my backers) only do big things, they said ‘It’s perfect for the situation here’.” While obesity and diabetes were a global epidemic, Weber said because GCC rates were rising significantly there was room for the business to grow rapidly. Diabetes, which at $6.6 billion accounts for 40 per cent of the country’s overall health bill, links directly to heart disease. Weber got German pastry chef Stefan Kopetz, who has worked with the German national football team and supermodel Heidi Klum, on board early to create cakes and pastries from mother nature’s sugar, calorie-free stevia – also the super ingredient used in sweetening the shop’s coffees and drinks. “It took us a whole six months, but it’s not easy to bake with stevia. Because it’s 300 times sweeter than sugar, you need to (supplement) it with some bulkier materials.” They will also serve low-fat sandwiches and salads, using products that are organic and fairly traded where possible. However, prices would be comparable to Starbucks, Weber said. The coffee shop had frappuccinos with just 150 calories, compared with Starbucks’ 750, and hot chocolates with 120 calories, compared to 500, she said. “You will not taste any difference, it’s just as sweet … with normal sweeteners, they are so unhealthy, they’re full of chemicals … it’s totally unhealthy, it has bad effects on your bones, it has bad effects on your health in the long term. You don’t feel it tomorrow, but consumption over the years has really bad effects.” Weber said she and her team had spent about two years priming Icons for a fast uptake, and already had 10 franchises set to launch next year, with hopes to expand internationally within the same timeframe. But the operation had humble origins, with a twist of fate when the part-time model was looking for an overseas internship during her business administration and marketing degree at university in hometown Munich. Her mum found a story about another young German model working in the UAE, while looking at a magazine featuring her daughter. “I just had this intuition and contacted her and what happened? One week later I was in Dubai.” Weber found herself working under major UAE investment company Orix, where she made good contacts who she turned to years later after conceiving the coffee shop idea while doing a volunteering stint in Argentina, where she discovered stevia. “I think you always have to give back to people, and things happen for a reason. We support education and the farms where we are growing (coffee beans). We want to do something good for people, not only with the products we have that are sugar free, but…we also want to enhance life around here.” The flagship Icons store will open at the Souk Al Bahar on October 7.   Continue reading →