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Tea, coffee and karkade: what to order and how

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Anorya Team · 24 avr. 2025 · 1 min read

Ask for coffee without specifying the sugar and you will be asked again. Here is the vocabulary.

Shai — tea — is the default drink of Egyptian social life. It comes in a glass, black, very strong and very sweet unless you intervene. Shai bi na'na' is with fresh mint and is what to order in the heat.

Tea, coffee and karkade: what to order and how

Coffee is ahwa, and the word is also the name of the café. It is Turkish-style: finely ground, boiled in a small pot, poured with the grounds and left to settle. Never stir the bottom, and never drink the last centimetre.

Sugar is the whole conversation, and it is asked before it is made rather than served on the side. Sada is without, arriha is a hint, mazbout is medium, ziyada is sweet. Order mazbout the first time and adjust from there — sada takes some getting used to.

Tea, coffee and karkade: what to order and howTea, coffee and karkade: what to order and how

Aseer asab, sugarcane juice pressed in front of you at a street stall, is the other one worth seeking out — it costs almost nothing and tastes like nothing else.

Karkade is dried hibiscus, deep red, served hot in winter and iced in summer, and it is genuinely refreshing rather than a tourist novelty. Aseer asab, sugarcane juice pressed in front of you at a street stall, is the other one worth seeking out — it costs almost nothing and tastes like nothing else.

Tea, coffee and karkade: what to order and how
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