In coffee-crazy Arab Gulf, a pricey pursuit for the perfect pot
At a cluster of nondescript garage-like shops in this northern Saudi city, customers pick up and inspect the objects of their desire, the rarest of which can be worth as much as a brand-new car.
These shops have no website, no Facebook or Instagram pages, no Google business profiles, not even phone numbers. If you are a collector or simply serious about your coffee, you know.
“If you like coffee, you are going to like coffeepots. And if you want the perfect coffeepot, you have to come here,” says Ibrahim, a customer who made the six-hour drive up from Riyadh. “Everyone knows this is the place for dalleh.”
Despite the lack of marketing, business isat Hail’s Souq al-Dallal, the largest coffeepot market in the Middle East, where craftsmen forge some of the last handmade copper pots in all of Arabia.
