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110, 26 July Street
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Coffee Places
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8AM -Midnight -
Haisam Awad
Bean is slowly dominating the streets of Cairo. The large Coffee & Tea Leaf
on Zamalek’s Aboul Feda Street grants you views of both the Nile and the
usually gridlocked traffic around the Om Kolthoum statue, and is frequented by
the best and worst of Zamalek’s trendy elite. The same coffee addicts can now
split their time between that location and the new Coffee Bean branch on 26th of
July Street, taking over from the space once occupied by Segafredo.
Apparently, 20,000 ice blended drinks are sold at Coffee
Bean chains worldwide, and this reviewer contributed to that number by ordering two. A large poster on the wall immediately
convinced us to get the blueberry ice blend (23LE). The giant slushy drink is
as cold, smooth and creamy as you’d expect, although it tasted more like fake sweet
blueberry flavouring than actual blueberries. For an extra 5LE, we topped off
the mountain with some whipped cream. You’ll find yourself sipping and picking
at it for a good hour or so, and one of those combination straw-spoons would
have been nice.
We also tried the white chocolate version (23LE), which came
with a generous dose of chocolate and caramel sauces (3.18LE each). This
coffee-based ice blend felt considerably denser and tasted much sweeter than
the blueberry version, though the coffee held it all together.
For 19.50LE, the chai latté made for a pleasant and comforting
drink on a chilly Zamalek evening. Unlike the ice blends, which can easily
become a favourite, the chai latté was flat on all fronts; particularly the
lack of masala chai flavour.
We took a plain, straight-up double cappuccino to go, and
found it bitter to an insane degree. We’re not pointing any fingers, but the
last time we tasted coffee that bitter, it was down to the machine not being
cleaned properly.
Having tired of muffins, we chose to munch on an almond
biscotti (4LE). We assume the batch would have been fresh in the morning, and
so we couldn’t really complain about the last one tasting a little stale at 11PM.
Don’t expect an authentic Italian sweet; it actually tastes more like an
Egyptian biscuit or cake. Nevertheless, it was pleasant enough to eat on an
empty stomach, and the raisins were a nice touch.
Both floors of the new branch are tiny, and although you can
be comfortable in groups of up to four, the cramped area isn’t welcoming to a
long afternoon coffee-marathon-chill-out session.
The staff sticks to the
counter downstairs, only coming up when summoned by a loud obnoxious ‘law
samaht’. In most civilised places around the world, there’s no shame in getting
up off your seat and making the ten steps down to the counter.
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