Beirut: a taste of crisis
through a cup of coffee

Global Voices

Hamra, a famous boulevard in Beirut, is a coffee lover’s haven — or perhaps it would be more apt to say that it was. Ranked by the World Bank among the top 10, if not three, most severe crises episodes globally since the mid-nineteenth century, Lebanon’s economic collapse, compounded by the tragic Beirut blast in 2020, has unraveled Hamra’s urban fabric and killed its cherished coffee culture.

The district’s once-bustling coffee shops sit eerily quiet, empty but for waiters shuffling aimlessly back and forth in the dark — for Hamra, like much of the rest of Beirut, suffers from regular power outages. FULL STORY