Matter is Where Cairo’s Coffee Purists Sip Matcha & Admit They Love It

In Cairo’s caffeine-crazed landscape, where espresso reigns supreme, Reem Hassan has orchestrated a quiet rebellion with whisk and beaker at Matter, her Palm Hills matcha house that’s converting even the most ardent coffee loyalists. Burly businessmen, once wedded to their thimble-sized espresso cups, are now lingering over velvety green lattes. “Five months ago, they’d dismiss matcha as a ‘girly’ phase,” Reem confides, a sly grin playing on her lips. “Now? They text me—my die-hard regulars, gents who knocked back six espressos before breakfast—are hooked. That’s impact.”

The name Matter isn’t some twee nod to matcha “mattering,” though it decidedly does. It’s a clever hat-tip to Reem’s pharmacy roots: “Matter is the substance of everything—like atoms in chemistry,” she explains. “Matcha, water, coffee? All just matter rearranged.” This neutrality frees her to flirt with innovation: think collagen-boosted lattes or spirulina-kissed elixirs. “Next wellness trend? We’ll own it,” she declares. “Matcha’s merely today’s star molecule.”

Reem’s journey from Dubai coffee sorceress to Cairo’s matcha alchemist reads like a sensory odyssey. As a professional coffee taster, she sourced beans for B2B titan Seven Fortunes until matcha’s “plateau-bright energy” seduced her. “Coffee left me jittery; matcha offered calm clarity,” she recalls. “And Egypt’s matcha scene? It was an untapped market.” Returning home, she fused lab precision with hospitality, creating a post-modern matcha house where machistas(conventionally known as baristas, but not in Matter) wield chemistry flasks alongside bamboo whisks.

Forget rustic minimalism. Matter thrills with frictionless flair: self-serve taps pour matcha like liquid jade, while smart stations spare you the “sugar-free? Extra whip?” rigmarole (though Reem admits Egyptians still relish a natter). Then come the desserts—her pièces de résistance. The white chocolate matcha cookies and “match-imisu” (a tiramisu reinvention) are minor miracles. “Baking with matcha is brutal,” Reem groans. “Too little? Vanilla bullies it. Too much? Bitter catastrophe. We wept through months of trials.” A massive advocate for collaboration, this summer she teamed up with Dolato, bringing matcha ice cream to the North Coast’s beaches.

Her secret to converting Cairo’s espresso cavalry? Sensory seduction. Watching skeptics hover, Reem becomes a caffeinated Cupid: “Start with the milk: full-cream? Oat? Prefer bitter or sweet? Try this blend…” Her crowning glory remains Golf Central’s coffee stalwarts, now sipping emerald brews. “They prove it’s not about age,” she muses. “It’s accessibility. Make it approachable, and even Cairo’s most traditional palates embrace green.”

As Reem eyes expansion—hinting at more tech, fewer queues—her mission stays deliciously subversive: “We’re not just serving drinks. We’re gently, persistently, turning Egypt into a matcha nation. One converted coffee snob at a time.”