Specialty Būn

Overview

Specialty Būn is the Cairo café and Cairo Coffee Collective the sister roastery of brothers Omar Nazmi and his older brother — Egyptians raised in Canada who started the roastery as a direct-to-consumer subscription program before opening the café in early 2021 as a 'client-facing proof of concept.' The build-out collaborates with local Egyptian businesses (Ceramica's terrazzo cups, bricks from Siwa, an entrance referencing architect Hassan Fathy, a community table by the family carpenter), and the Nazmis hosted Egypt's early sanctioned brewing championships in 2021 to bring local roasters and brewers into one frame.

Known for

• Two-brother Egyptian-Canadian operation — Cairo Coffee Collective roastery + Specialty Būn café
• Started as a direct-to-consumer coffee subscription before retail
• Café opened early 2021 as 'client-facing proof of concept' for the roastery
• Hosted sanctioned brewing championships in 2021 to put Egypt on the global coffee map
• Design collaborations with local Egyptian craft — Ceramica cups, Siwa bricks, Hassan Fathy-inspired entrance
• B2B clients include Egyptian D2C grocery service Breadfast

Why it matters

Egypt has a centuries-old café tradition rooted in finely-ground Turkish-style coffee, but a homegrown specialty-grade roastery scene barely existed before the Nazmi brothers. Specialty Būn and Cairo Coffee Collective are the operation that put the missing infrastructure in place — a roastery, a brewing championship, a café modeled around a community table, and supplier relationships with the Cairo D2C grocery scene — and gave the country its first real flagship third-wave coffee identity.

Production

destoning

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head roaster

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color sorting

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roaster machine

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filter equipment

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cupping frequency

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roastery location

Cairo, Egypt

espresso equipment

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annual volume tonnes

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Café

This roaster operates a café.

Sources

• https://egyptianstreets.com/2022/03/21/specialty-bun-how-two-brothers-are-changing-egypts-relationship-with-coffee/
• https://blogs.realestate.gov.eg/the-best-coffee-roasters-suppliers-in-egypt/
• https://arabmls.org/best-coffee-roasters-suppliers-in-egypt/