You Can Now Have Your Filtered Coffee Sans Machine With ReQaf

Let me set the scene for you.

It’s Sunday morning, and if you’re unlucky enough to reside on one of the two rivalling ends of Cairo (East and West, of course. I was going to weigh in and name the obvious winner but drama, I will not start), you’ve just braved your way through two hours of mind-numbing traffic.

Upon arriving at the office and skillfully sidestepping your scowling boss, who's charging towards you with deadline-induced intensity, you discover that the long-serving yet severely rusted coffee machine has, at last, met its gradual demise. Now, you’re going to have to settle for…instant coffee. A capital caffeination sin. 

In an attempt to shield the entire office from your imminent hours-long rant about how instant coffee is not really coffee, a co-worker in shining knee-high boots, the modern equivalent of armour, presents you with a sachet resembling a tea bag. While scrutinising the sachet through the discerning lens of a true coffee connoisseur, you come to the realisation that it does, indeed, contain coffee.

With two handles that help secure it to your cup, ReQaf, which possesses a dual Egyptian-German nationality and pays homage to its heritage through the letter ‘Qaf’ (derived from the Arabic word ‘Qahwa,’ meaning coffee), reconceptualies the coffee drinking experience by using drip bags, which act as disposable filters, filled with Kenyan, Ethiopian or Columbian ground beans. A ‘coffee bag,’ if you will.“I used to travel with all my coffee equipment. Grinder, scale, everything - I wanted to have my coffee just how I like it anytime, anywhere,” Aly Khattab, founder of ReQaf, tells SceneEats. “So, I quit my job and by the second day of my notice period, I was already working on branding.”

ReQaf's primary objective is to eliminate coffee appliances entirely. This enables coffee enthusiasts to enjoy their preferred brew while camping, hiking, or even in an average workplace lacking a functioning coffee machine.

With office packages that promise to supply any workplace with refillable dispensers, event packages that will hopefully extinguish any and all unwanted yawns from your get-together and monthly ‘sipscriptions’ (pun intended, I’m sure) for your home, ReQaf seems to really take its ‘anytime, anywhere’ slogan to heart.

“It took us a full year to finalise everything,” Khattab continues. “We initially tried working with tea factories but the product was really watered down and not particularly sustainable.”

In an age of environmental awareness and sustainability, ReQaf is understandably aiming to reduce its carbon footprint “from crop to cup,” as the website states, by utilising recycled materials and packaging, as well as by working directly with farmers to source its seasonal crop.According to Khattab, “ReQaf is not a product; it's more of a lifestyle,” and if you scroll through their curated music channel, crafted by industry members Deeb, Jess and Mariam Afifi, it might be easier to understand what he means.

Three separate playlists make up ReQaf’s “Sip & Groove” channel, which are meant to “accompany you on your coffee experience,” as Khattab himself explains.

Whether or not your taste buds will celebrate this concoction is entirely up to you but, at the very least, we can recognize that ReQaf is making an unfiltered case (lol) for machine-less ground coffee.