These Matcha-Twins Perfected The Art of The Stay-Home Sipping

The bond between twins is a silent, pre-verbal shorthand that can turn a shared glance into a grand plan. For Maria and Rita Essam, the 21-year-old founders of the Egyptian brand Mellow Matcha, that alchemy began not with a taste, but rather, the profound lack of one. It was the taste of something dusty, rubbery, grassy, something decidedly not the vibrant, umami-rich whisper of green they were desperately seeking. Two halves of a single idea waiting to happen: one a business brain itching for a venture, the other an artist’s soul with an eye for beauty. Together, they were about to prove that the most potent brew in town could be one of sisterhood.

“We love matcha,” Maria explains, “but when we wanted to make it at home, we couldn’t find a good seller.” The search became a saga of disappointing samples, a parade of powders that landed on the palate with all the elegance of a damp dishcloth. “People always said it tasted like dust,” Rita recalls “It felt like dust on your tongue.” This was the discordant note that set their mission humming. If the market offered only a cacophony of poor quality at outrageous prices then they would have to compose the symphony themselves.

And so, Mellow Matcha was born from a classic twinly division of labour. Maria, the strategist, attacked the business labyrinth: sourcing, logistics, the endless calculus of supply and demand. Rita, the fashion student, joined later and conjured the brand’s visual soul from scratch. “I drew the logo, the graphics, everything,” she says. “I sent a sketch to someone to digitise, but the vision was mine. I really think the eyes eat before the mouth.” The result is packaging so charming it has already spawned imitators…the sincerest, if most irritating, form of flattery.The name itself arrived after a seemingly endless parade of impostors, a final sample landed in their cups. Smooth. Balanced. It was, for lack of a better word, mellow. “I told my dad, what do you think we should call it? Mellow Matcha? Because it tastes mellow,” Maria recounts.

Running through their story is respect for matcha not just as a natural product. “In general, every spring, there is a slight difference in taste. This is a natural product… For example, every tomato is different.” One harvest may carry a hint of vanilla, the next a stronger, more aromatic punch. Their ‘mellow matcha’ is primarily in Ceremonial Grade Matcha, 5A, a vibrant, complex powder meant for whisking and savouring.

But for the true connoisseur, or the cautious beginner, they offer Super Ceremonial Grade Matcha. “It’s 6A. It’s very limited,” Maria explains, describing a powder from the earliest spring harvest, ground from the most tender leaves. “It has a lighter taste than Ceremonial… we recommend it to beginners, honestly, because it has a very light taste.”

Their quest for the perfect powder was an epic of emails and taste tests, leading them to the perfect farm in Asia. Their mission was accessibility: a sublime cup that could be made at home for a fraction of a café’s price.
Of course, the path of the young, female entrepreneur in Egypt is not always mellow per say. They navigate a landscape riddled with condescension and logistical betrayals. Robbed, underestimated, and told more times than they can count that they would fail. But they are fortified by a defiant, shared resilience and the unshakeable belief of their father, their first and most vocal investor.

They dream of a factory in Minya, their family’s governorate, to create ethical jobs for women in a place where opportunity is scarce. “We want to work with Egyptian workers more,” Rita emphasises, their business ethos deeply entwined with the community. A vision of a full-circle economy, from the farm to the Egyptian hand that packs it, to the local factory they one day hope to build.

Today, their greatest challenge is keeping up with a demand that sees each batch “sell out in minutes.” It’s a happy crisis especially as their brand grew primarily through word of mouth. Walking through Cairo and overhearing strangers discussing Mellow Matcha remains a pinch-me moment. “The first time we were out of stock in minutes was a shock,” Maria admits.Their gaze is fixed on a horizon beyond the D2C website. “Yes, we want to make it B2B.” The dream is to see their distinctive tins lining the shelves of supermarkets, transforming Mellow Matcha from a cult favourite into a household staple.“We hope there will not be a shortage again.”

Sitting with them, even virtually, you sense the dynamic—Maria’s sentences are rapid-fire, strategic; Rita’s are more visual, emotive. They are a perfect dialectic, a living conversation that resulted in a beautiful, tangible thing.

So, what does that success taste like? It tastes, of course, perfectly mellow.