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
- roastery location
- Cairo, Egypt
Café
This roaster operates a café.