Forget cappuccino, Dubai drinkers get a taste for camel-ccino

The newly opened Cafe2Go is one of the first to put camel milk on its menu and it seems to be passing the taste test with intrigued customers.

"I'm surprised because I was thinking it was tasting really different from the normal milk, but ... it's really nice," said customer Nadia Rizk.

"I thought it would be weird when I tried it, but it's just like everything else," said another, Sal Hobbi.

It is the latest sign of a boom in camel-milk products in the United Arab Emirates.

A few years ago, Al-Nassma became the first company in the country to produce camel-milk chocolate. "It tastes really nice," said Martin Van Almsick, general manager of Al Nassma Chocolate. "And the thing is, you don't have to be an expert to notice. This is a great chocolate, everybody can tell."

Camel milk has been a staple for Bedouins for centuries, but it has never before been produced in scale or used commercially in this way. For Emiratis, it is a way of combining local pride with a healthy option. Camel milk is lower in fat and higher in Vitamin C than cow's milk, according to scientists.

"In the milk are all the vitamins, all the minerals, fat, carbohydrates, that you need for daily life," said Ulrich Wernery, scientific director of the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory.

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