"Sâda?” is an oft-heard question in the coffee shops of Cairo, asking whether or not your coffee, known to the Cairenes as ahwa, should be sweetened or not. In Cairo, the preparation of coffee is a sacred, almost ritualised tradition. If you want it black without sugar, you must add the word “sâda” to your order. Otherwise, there are a number of words that Egyptians use to describe different levels of sweetness, such as mazbout – medium sweet – or sukkar ziyâda, for those who prefer heaps of sugar. Coffee is a ritual that is often accompanied by smoking shisha. Coffee is the Egyptians’ favourite drink, as vital to them as wine is to a Frenchman. The Cairenes’ preferred nectar has a history all of its own, too.
There was a time when coffee was shipped up the Suez then transported overland by caravan to Cairo, with thousands of camels crossing the desert under the watchful eye of their Bedouin masters. The journey took three days under the hot sun, with man and beast enduring sand storms and freezing cold nights. The Bedouins suffered many ills during these crossings, but it was their duty to bring the precious coffee to the caravanserai of Cairo, those great stone buildings with their arcades, columns and fountains, for the locals to enjoy – as well as for export throughout the Ottoman Empire. The coffee trade was run by very powerful men known as the tuggar. They were so rich that they had no fewer than twenty servants each in their luxurious villas, and they paid for the renovation of mosques and buildings in the city. They were so powerful that they had the ear of the Emirs, and influenced their decisions. They were the elite of Egyptian society. It was said that coffee was good for the health and pleasing to the living God, due to its aroma and the energy it bestowed. The first coffee houses soon opened in Cairo. There one could play chess, listen to poetry and discuss the affairs of the day while sipping a cup of the black brew. The local middle classes took great pleasure in meeting in the afternoon to drink coffee on the street corners, or on the wide avenues of Cairo or along the pathways of public parks and gardens. Coffee became so popular that only the pyramids of Cairo knew the depths of its secrets and virtues. Coffee brought people together, and nourished their social bonds.
Would it be tea or coffee for the two gentlemen? Today, it would be two teas. As French author Paul Morand so deftly puts it: “Through tea, the Orient came into our homes; through coffee, it came into our minds.”
Alan Alfredo Geday
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