UPDATED ON August 11th, 2011 CATEGORY Finjan

Arabic culture & heritage

The knowledge, information and experience found within The Finjan’s ArtOfCup app has only been passed on by word of mouth, until now.

This age old culture of reading into a finished coffee cup has been practised over the past 500 years. The simple symbolism within a coffee cup has offered countless inspirational images.

A section of The Finjan’s ArtOfCup app plays a song inspired by the classical Arabic song/poem entitled “Karet El Finjan” (Reader of the Cup ) – originally written as a beautiful love/tragedy poem by the late great poet Nizar Qabbani and then sung by the famous late iconic Arabic singer Abdel Halim Hafez (the Elvis Presley of the Middle East). It is considered one of the most important songs in the Arab world.

Devoted to coffee with the emphasis on the culture of Arabic coffee, The Finjan’s ArtOfCup app brings to you an age old experience that you may or may not know of. Allow this app to introduce you to a daily ritual for many coffee lovers. The Finjan pays tribute to Arabic coffee’s forgotten history and traditions.

UPDATED ON August 9th, 2011 CATEGORY Author, Finjan

Daveeda Shaheen

The Finjan ArtOfCup app is a unique piece of technology that hasn’t been seen before within the domain of mobile applications. It is the brainchild of Daveeda Shaheen, Founder & CEO of The Finjan brand.

  • “My passion for the little Arabia Coffee bean is very much part of my Arabic culture. I began by writing a part fact-part fictional coffee book called “The Finjan”. Then came the The Finjan ArtOfCup app, a coffee bean pendant that has been called the “Middle East Coffee Peace Bean”, and The Finjan Coffee Blend (soon to be packaged from the historical Yemeni coffee harvested from Yemen, the birth place of coffee, and distributed as part of a philanthropic plight to give back to the Middle Eastern coffee heritage).”

During the years of studying coffee and developing The Finjan, Daveeda has been instrumental in many artistic and cultural private projects and charities as well as appearing on numerous discussion panels about coffee and the Middle East.

Prior to the launch of The Finjan brand, Daveeda worked as a project manager, curating all the artwork in and around the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE … “the tallest building in the world”.

The Finjan brand is linked to and supports the following charities: The Four Homes of Mercy in Jerusalem, Snowflake School for Children with Autism in London, and Panthera Wildlife Conservation.

UPDATED ON August 8th, 2011 CATEGORY Finjan

The Story

The Finjan is literally translated from Arabic as “cup” and it is understood that it is specifically a coffee cup.

The Finjan ArtOfCup offers a most unique coffee experience. It is an app for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, which demonstrates the art of Finjan as well as enabling users to “flip the cup” to create a virtual tiffil and then search for symbols and explore what these symbols mean. It’s a way of practicing the art of Finjan … any time, any place … and a beautiful way to see into a cup of coffee and find something new, everyday.

The Finjan ArtOfCup app began as a coffee book called “The Finjan” and inevitably the story in the book was developed into this app.

The Finjan brand consists of (1) a book/box gift set about the very beginnings of coffee and specifically Arabic coffee, paying tribute to coffee’s forgotten history (2) an Arabic coffee iPhone app that lets you have a virtual cultural experience (3) a coffee bean pendant (marked as the Middle East coffee Peace bean) (4) an Organic Finjan coffee blend from the Arab Peninsular aimed for a contemporary Arabic coffee shop chain (in Yemen, the land on which coffee was first ever cultivated).

The Finjan brand is a journey to the origins of the Arabian coffee bean and the art and cultue contained within a coffee cup.