STELLA "BEER OF EGYPT"

STELLA'S GRANDPA 1897-1947Credits: Samir Raafat (www.egy.com)
Egyptian Mail, Saturday, June 14, 1997; Cairo Times, May 14, 1998

Even the most abstaining teetotaler heard of the golden liquid in the green bottle sporting the yellow label and blue star. To her credit la blonde Stella, as Egypt's leading beer been called for almost a century, survived a whopping recession, two world wars, a coup d'etat, sequestration and more recently a spate of religious conservatism.

The older generations may still remember how, if arak was not available, the affordable Stella (6.5 piasters per bottle in the 1940s!) always took precedence at the Kit-Kat, the Dahabia, the Parisienne, Chez Badia or Casino al-Shagara. Not a Christmas or Shabatt passed where Stella was not present on the table whenever guests appeared. Sham al-Nessim would invariably mean fessikh with Stella. Some old timers argue that it was thanks to Stella that

3 Brands of Stella

Aussies and Kiwis defeated the Pils-drinking Krauts at Alamein!

Incorporated in Belgium --home to the world famous Stella Artois-- the first producers of the Egyptian Stella opened shop in May 1898 under the name of the Crown Brewery Company of Cairo. But in order to avoid confusion with its older Alexandria sibling by the same name, the directors quickly decided on a name change: Société Anonyme Brasserie des Pyramides (Pyramids Brewery). For several decades thereafter, the fortress-like beer plant in the district of Bein al-Sarayat remained one Giza's most famous landmarks. Fortunately, the plant is still with us today.

Pyramids Brewery's first public share offering comprised 15,000 shares priced at FF 100 each. Due to high start-up costs, the company was obliged to launch a second share issue in November 1904 bringing total shares on the market to 20,000. But with careful investments and the combination of Belgian know-how and equipage, Pyramids Brewery gradually displaced existing mom n' pop beer manufacturers and stood up to famous imported brand names including Bremen's Burton Beck & Co. and the widespread Guinness Stout.

At first, treated Nile water was used for the production of the golden ale, but finding it was not up to the required standard, Pyramids Brewery resorted to aquifers. Another change in keeping with growing demand was the necessity to keep a constant stock of 6,281 hectoliters with a guaranteed four-month storage period to ensure quality. 

All these changes came with a hefty price tag yet by year-end 1906, Pyramids Brewery made it into the black showing a profit of FF

A cold beer in Gouna

164,023 with a 30% increase in overall production. Board chairman Chakour Pasha could now toast his fellow directors Messrs. L. Carton de Wiart, Florent Lambert, J. Debonne, Alfonso Colucci and L. Dumonceau. And with 34 brasseries and beer halls already registered in Cairo, there would be many more toasts to come.

In Alexandria meanwhile, beer drinkers were more than satisfied with their own local brew. In fact they had a choice between an ale produced by the Swiss Bomonti Brothers of Karmous, near Alexandria's Mahmoudia Canal, or that which was marketed by the Alexandria Crown Brewery Company launched at Ibrahimieh in 1897. It would take a series of mergers and acquisitions -- the first in 1909 and the last on Christmas day 1922 -- before the emerging Bomonti & Pyramids Beer Company could call itself Egypt's leading brewery. By then, Stella beer had become the symbol of reliability and good times. Things got even better when a million thirsty Allied soldiers passed through Egypt during WW2. By its fiftieth year, Stella beer had become an international brand name without ever leaving Egyptian territory.

A Stella in 1952 for 5 piasters

After the war, with a capital of LE 192,875, Bomonti & Pyramids Beer Company underwent major changes in conformity with the New Company Act requiring larger Egyptian representation on company boards. This was when Cotton King Mohammed Ahmed Fargahli Pasha also became known as King Beer reference to his becoming the first Egyptian to run Bomonti & Pyramids. It was about this time that the company entered into a technical-assistance agreement with Heineken.

In July 1953, a year after the hurried departure of another king --Farouk of Egypt--the "Bomonti" in the company's name was dropped and the "Pyramids" arabized to Al Ahram. More changes still when in 1962, Ahram Beverages along with Egypt's entire private sector succumbed to sequestration and nationalization. Crown Brewery Company of Alexandria which had so far resisted merging with its Cairo nemesis, did so by ministerial decree. Competition and quality suffered as government appointees, free from shareholder accountability, were coerced into importing the company's needs from the Soviet Union and its Eastern satellites. The era of a flat, stingless Stella had arrived.

It was during this time that a non-alcoholic brand --Birell-- was launched as a means of placating growing anti-secular sentiment calling for the summary prohibition of the golden ale. A compromise was however found when alcoholic beverages were banned from non-touristic sites and during the month of Ramadan. But time was on Stella' s side. By successfully launching Egypt's first ever GDR financing in 1997, Ahram Beverages Company found itself at the center of media attention and at the vanguard of Egypt's move towards privatization. Despite those who had exaggerated Stella's demise, the golden froth is today the beacon of economic change. Another beer-making milestone achieved in time for Stella's 100th birthday.

Credits to owner of this article (Samir Raafat) 

GROPPI OF CAIRO

                

Picture of Groppi (2002) Photo Y. Sharobim

GROPPI, once the most celebrated tearoom this side of the Mediterranean was the creation of Giacomo Groppi (1863-1947) a native of Lugano, Switzerland. In time Maison Groppi became chief purveyor of chocolate to monarchs and pashas throughout the MidEast. Whenever pashas, beys and resident-foreigners traveled to Europe they took with them cartons filled with Groppi chocolates. During WW-II King Farouk air freighted via Khartoum, Entebbe, Dakar, Lisbon, Dublin a lacquered box emblazoned with the royal arms of Egypt and Great Britain. Inside, to the delight of the then-princesses Elizabeth and Margaret of England, were 100 kilos of Groppi chocolates.

Groppi Stickers

After a short apprenticeship with an uncle in Lugano and a brief employment in Provence, south of France, Giacomo Groppi arrived in Egypt in the 1880s to take up employment at Maison Gianola, a popular Swiss pastry and teashop on Bawaki Street, Cairo. In 1890, Giacomo Groppi, now aged 27, bought out Gianola's interests in its Alexandria's Rue de France branch and proceeded to open his own pastry and dairy shop.

By 1900 Groppi was running a successful enterprise annually exporting 100,000 cartons of eggs to the United Kingdom.

At Maison Groppi's second Alexandrine branch, on Cherif Street, Giacomo introduced crème chantilly for the first time in Egypt. This was a new technological feat which he acquired while touring the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Groppi was also the first chocolatier in Egypt to employ a female staff. In 1906, he sold his company to a Frenchman, Auguste Baudrot, and retired. For the next 60 years, Baudrot was regarded first amongst equals whenever compared to Alexandria's other famous tea rooms: Pastroudis, Trianon and Athineos. All three were run by Greeks.

Having lost his entire savings during the economic depression of 1907 Giacomo Groppi was obliged to return to what he knew best: making chocolates, pastries and dairy products. But out of deference to Baudrot, Groppi moved his activities to Cairo's al-Maghrabi Street (later, Adly Pasha Street). With only "La Marquise de Sévigné" and "Maison Mathieu" (renamed Sault) pausing as competition, Maison Groppi was ensured success in the nation's capital.

Old picture of Groppi

The formal opening took place on 23 December 1909. By the time WW-I broke out, Groppi's Tea Garden had become a favorite with the British Army of Occupation. A deli was added enhancing Groppi's image as the purveyor of quality food products.

In 1922 Maison Groppi inaugurated its own cold storage company--Industrie du Froid--employing over 120 workers and producing a daily output of 2,400 blocs of ice.

Coffee

In 1928, Giacomo Groppi's son, Achille, launched his famous ice cream, a technology he imported from the United States. The names of his delicious specialties were as exceptional as they tasted: Sfogliatella, Morocco, Mau Mau, Peche Melba, Maruska, Comtesse Marie, Surprise Neapolitaine. Cairenes were grateful to Achille for yet another creation: the Groppi tearoom situated on Midan Soliman Pasha (now, Talaat Harb).

Decades later, Groppi of Cairo would open a terrace café in Heliopolis overlooking Avenue des Pyramides and the legendary Heliopolis Palace Hotel (now, Uruba Presidential Palace).

To accommodate the less privileged Maison Groppi launched a chain of pastry and coffee shops "A l'Americaine".

Groppi Heliopolis

Thankfully Groppi's two main branches miraculously escaped complete destruction during the anti-British Black Saturday riots of January 1952 which ended with the burning of Cairo. In March 1954 Egypt's emerging strongman Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser ordered the placing of a bomb in Groppi's patisserie. While the detonation caused widespread panic, thankfully no one was hurt. The objective of Nasser's macabre exercise was to promote a feeling of public insecurity. The power struggle among the Free Officers had reached a new climax and the vicious smear campaign against Egypt's first president General Mohammed Naguib had somehow made its way inside Groppi.

Groppi Gardens Adly Pacha St.

Forty years later, the legend of Groppi exists in name only. The rot and decay of the socialist 1960s had taken their heavy toll. By the time Egypt returned to the ways of an open economy, Groppi's descendants had already abandoned the trade and left Egypt.

The rest is history. 
Article contributed by: Aziz Matta