Winchester, a city in Hampshire on the edge of England’s South Downs National Park, is best known for its medieval heritage. Its famous Winchester Cathedral houses the 17th-century Morley Library, the Winchester Bible and a Norman crypt, while its historic streets draw visitors from around the world.
But today, another attraction is bringing people to the city — coffee crafted by a Nepali barista. His name? Dhan Tamang.
The 38-year-old opened Kabi in May 2024 and Needed Cafe on December 24 that year. According to Tamang, Kabi is among the largest coffee shops in southern England, serving around 1,200 customers across a typical weekend.
The two businesses represent an investment of nearly £1 million. But Tamang’s success is not simply about selling coffee. He is a five-time UK Latte Art Champion, having won the title consecutively from 2013 to 2017. In 2016, he was also a finalist at the World Latte Art Championship in Shanghai, China.
His work has taken him far beyond Britain. He says he travelled to nearly 50 countries between 2022 and 2023, largely for coffee festivals, and has worked as a global brand ambassador for several companies.
Through colour, design and distinctive techniques, he has turned coffee-making into an art form that has attracted audiences around the world.
For Tamang, however, coffee has never been just about what is served in a cup.
More than a coffee shop
Kabi, which can accommodate around 100 people, has a coffee and cooking school on a separate floor. Its coffee laboratory regularly attracts students who want to learn the craft.
Teaching has become an important part of Tamang’s journey — one that he now hopes to take back to Nepal.
He is preparing to open coffee shops in Nepal and Dubai in 2026, bringing his experience of European coffee culture to Nepal, where he believes the growing interest in coffee is creating new opportunities.
He is also considering expanding through a franchise model.
“First, I want to establish the brand and the business. Once that is established, I believe people themselves will ask for it,” he says.
The ambition is familiar to anyone who has followed Tamang’s career. He has spent much of his life building, losing and rebuilding. But long before the championships and coffee shops, his journey began in Kavre.
A journey that began in the Gulf
Dhan Tamang was born and raised in Timalsina, Kavre. After completing his SLC, he moved to Kathmandu around 2001. He studied at Hiralal Campus in Thahiti and found work at a cargo company in Thamel, where he earned Rs 2,500 a month.
As he approached 20, he dreamed of becoming a British Gurkha. That dream did not materialise. Instead, he paid Rs 200,000 to a foreign employment company and left for Kuwait.
He arrived around 2006 without any particular professional skill. For the first two months, he remained unemployed. At the time, coffee was almost entirely unfamiliar to him.
In Kuwait, he encountered words such as latte, cappuccino and Americano for the first time.
His introduction to the coffee industry came at the American chain US Green Beans Coffee, where he spent two years learning the basics and gradually developing an interest in the craft.
When his contract ended, Tamang returned to Nepal in May 2008, carrying coffee handbooks with him. Those books became the foundation for his next step.
He began training others in coffee-making and eventually wrote his own handbook. He taught at institutions including Gate College in Dhumbarahi and The Factory in Thamel. But Nepal was not the end of his journey.
Starting again in Britain
In February 2010, after taking a loan of Rs 2 million, Dhan Tamang moved to the UK on a student dependent visa. Britain was not the easy new beginning he had imagined. He had borrowed heavily to make the move, but finding a good job proved difficult. His English was also a barrier.
So he began teaching himself.
He watched English films and spent time reading books in libraries, gradually improving his language skills.
From the moment he arrived in Britain, he knew where he wanted to work — a coffee shop. He eventually found a job at Gail’s Bakery, where he rose to become an assistant manager within a year and a half.
But his path to success was far from straightforward.
In early 2011, he began making and selling momos near Hounslow West railway station. For around eight months, the momo business provided a good income. Then visa difficulties forced him to consider another move.
That decision took him to Winchester.
There, Caracoli Coffee House offered him a work permit under a Tier 2 visa, along with accommodation. Tamang joined the company’s second shop as a head barista. In 2013, he became a branch manager.
That same year, he entered the UK Latte Art Championship at the London Coffee Festival. He won.
The championship that changed everything
For Dhan Tamang, becoming a champion had always been a dream.
“Every barista dreams of becoming a champion. That title made me known around the world. I appeared in many international media outlets, my salary increased. You could say it gave my life a U-turn,” he says.
The victory was not a one-off. Tamang went on to win the UK Latte Art Championship five consecutive times, from 2013 to 2017. In 2016, he reached the final of the World Latte Art Championship in Shanghai.
By then, the young man who had arrived in Kuwait without a professional skill had become an internationally recognised figure in the coffee industry. But his biggest challenges were still ahead.
Building, losing and starting again
In March 2016, Dhan Tamang opened a small coffee shop in Winchester called Coffee Lab UK. The business grew quickly. Within its first year, he had five coffee shops operating across Winchester, Southampton and other cities. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the business had expanded to 13 coffee shops, a bakery and a ready-to-drink coffee roastery.
Then the pandemic brought everything to a halt.
Lockdowns forced his shops to close, and Tamang says he lost nearly £2 million. Once again, he had to start over. In 2021, he made a major investment and opened two Coffee Lab UK shops in Winchester and Ipswich. But the business continued to face difficulties.
In 2022, Dhan Tamang resigned as CEO of Coffee Lab UK and sold all his shares. He then stepped away from the industry for around two years.
For someone who had spent much of his adult life building businesses, it was a period of reflection.
He had gone from Kuwait to Britain, from selling momos outside a railway station to winning international coffee competitions, and from running a handful of coffee shops to overseeing a rapidly expanding business.
He had also experienced what it meant to lose much of what he had built.
Eventually, he returned to coffee. This time, he came back with Kabi and Needed.
Coffee as art
Tamang’s work extends beyond the coffee shops themselves. He is also an author.
His first book, Coffee Art, was published in 2017 and is available in seven languages — English, French, Dutch, German, Hungarian, Chinese and Indonesian.
He says the book became an Amazon bestseller in the coffee and beverages category and has sold around 300,000 copies worldwide. The book explores coffee art and its concepts.
In January 2024, he published his second book, Coffee Art Masterclass. Published by Octopus, the 128-page book features more than 50 coffee designs.
For Tamang, the importance of coffee art is simple. People see coffee before they taste it.
“You see the coffee before you drink it. That’s why the presentation has to be attractive,” he says.
That belief has shaped much of his career — treating coffee not simply as a drink, but as an experience.
The journey continues
Today, Kabi and Needed are operating at what Dhan Tamang describes as their peak. But he does not see his story as finished. His plans for Nepal and Dubai are already taking shape, and he is looking at the possibility of eventually expanding through franchising.
The setbacks along the way have also shaped the way he thinks about business. His advice is straightforward — do not give up when things go wrong.
For Tamang, hard work and dedication remain the foundation of success. His own journey offers a powerful illustration of that belief.
A young man from Kavre who once earned Rs 2,500 a month in Kathmandu travelled to Kuwait without a professional skill, moved to Britain with borrowed money, sold momos to make ends meet, became a five-time UK Latte Art Champion, built a growing coffee empire, lost nearly £2 million during the pandemic and eventually started again.
Now, thousands of customers walk through the doors of his coffee shops in Winchester.
And Tamang is already looking towards what comes next.
