Coffee Break

Bonn Al-Brazili is an institution in Alexandria. With a reputation extending beyond the city of its origin to many other cities across Egypt, this coffee house, aside from being a café, also sells fresh ground coffee — the first in Alexandria to do so. As soon as you walk in the original Salah Salem branch the smell of brewing coffee hits you in the face. The velvety smell drifts and lingers in the shop’s narrow space as the sound of coffee cup clanging against saucers fills the room, accented by the rhythm of spoons clinking against the cups. A buzz of constant chatter is kept up by the patrons, some of whom come in groups to satisfy their caffeine cravings and socialize, while others come alone to enjoy a cup of coffee while reading a book, listening to music or taking in the atmosphere. The loud continuous buzzing of the coffee grinder has become part of the background noise, filling in any gaps between conversations, yet the customers don’t seem to notice it anymore. I make my choice from a menu handwritten on a paper stuck to the wall. My cappuccino came with the fluffy milk foam decorated with a brown leaf drawn on the surface using coffee powder. The coffee’s strong and just slightly bitter taste was perfect once I mixed in the sugar. The roasted beans are displayed on the wall in glass cylinders, each bean almost identical to the next, with their golden brown coloring and firm oval shape, the groove down the middle like a valley through two mountains. But it is the deep, dark brown powder after grinding that exudes Bonn Al Brazili’s signature coffee aroma. When Bonn Al-Brazili opened in 1929,  employees ground the coffee beans by hand; 30 years later, the café was the first to use machines to do the job. The city’s first coffee grinder still exists in the Saad Zaghloul street branch. The only drawbacks were the slightly flickering white fluorescent lights and the temperature. Although it was only springtime, the coffee shop was chilly. The staff felt the need to switch on the air conditioner to counteract the heat of the boiling cups of coffee and keep their guests from being too warm to enjoy their coffees. I would have enjoyed mine better had the air conditioner not been so high, making my coffee go from scorching hot to barely lukewarm in just five minutes. I had heard that Bonn Al-Brazili makes a mean hot chocolate so I decided to put them to the test.  My hot chocolate looked similar to the cappuccino, except the bubbly milk froth on top  had a heart with an arrow through it, drawn in chocolate powder. Learning from my previous experience of my drink getting cold, I tried to sip the hot chocolate as fast as I could, slightly burning my tongue along the way. But the rich chocolate flavor mixed with the creamy, full-fat milk was worth the pain. There’s only so much caffeine one can drink in one sitting, but as I left, I vowed to treat myself to Bonn al Brazili every time I am in Alexandria.  Brazilian Coffee Stores • 20 Salah Salem Street • (03) 487-4705 • Alexandria Library – Port Said Street • (0150) 200-2001 Salma Zakaria, a student in the Rhet 341 Travel Writing Class at the American University in Cairo, was one of three winners of an Egypt Today student writing contest in May.