Trouble brewing

Dubai's tea culture is rather fascinating. While the Gulf generally conjures up an image of gentle bedu serving coffee in a desert setting, the reality - Arabian Adventures aside - is subcontinental bachelors sitting on dingy white plastic chairs buying hyper-sweet cups of Rainbow-milky Lipton from various imaginatively-titled cafés. such as "Eat and Relax Restaurant" or "Eat and Drink Cafeteria".

For twenty-seven long years the price of tea has been a fixed 50 fils, around 13 cents, with the authorities blocking any attempts to raise it. (If only they had done the same with petrol). But now the street bone-china of choice, the thin plastic cup, has been banned:

"The decision has been taken on the recommendations of the Food Safety Committee after lab tests showed such cups pose health risk. They don't withstand heat and can contaminate hot beverages," said Khalid Sharif, Assistant Director General at Health Department and Head of Food Safety Section. He said establishments can use foam polystyrene or paper cups instead.

The problem is that thicker polystyrene and cardboard cups, though far nicer and safer, are also far more expensive. Profit margins are currently only a few fils per cuppa, so vendors are going to be even more desperate to raise prices or go out of business. And customers will go thirsty as a unique sip of Dubailife trickles away into the sand.