Sharjah's Ibreeq Alshai Built an Entire Café Around the Teapot

At Ibreeq Alshai, tea gets more attention than it's usually given. The menu runs from karak and Iraqi tea to Moroccan atay, karkadeh and habba hamra, with newcomers like matcha and iced peach tea alongside them.

Then come the Emirati baked goods: regag, khameer, chebab, mandazi, balaleet and luqaimat.

The café opened in Sharjah in 2024 after its founders noticed how much ceremony the modern café had built around coffee. Beans had countries of origin, specific roasts, specialised machines, and a whole counter dedicated to them alone. 

Tea, meanwhile, remained a drink for after lunch, during a visit, or an evening in the majlis, an afterthought for cafés.

"We noticed that most projects paid much attention to coffee although tea has a very rich culture here and is available in almost every household, majlis and meeting," Ahmad Al Mazmi, the owner of Ibreeq, told SceneNowUAE.

"Why couldn't there be a place where tea will be the main drink instead of an additional drink?" he asked.

Ibreeq is Arabic for teapot. "Just hearing ibreeq means tea, sitting together, home and hospitality," he explains. "We did not want an unusual name that requires explanation."

Tea, in Al Mazmi's memories, was seldom alone, always accompanied by an inevitable list of preferences.

Everyone, he points out, takes theirs differently. "One likes tea strong, another light, one loves karak, another Iraqi or Moroccan tea."

What keeps the menu from growing too long is a decisive question. "We do not want to have the whole menu of traditional drinks," he says, "and at the same time we do not want to add new drinks just because they are trendy." Every drink has to pass two tests. "Does this product fit Ibreeq? And would people order it again?"

For Al Mazmi, Ibreeq is above all a Sharjah project. "Sharjah is a very important element in Ibreeq's identity because the project started and developed in Sharjah," he says.

The city, in his opinion, was the right home for the idea. "It has families, youth, students, and the community that enjoys gatherings and local projects. Even if the brand goes farther beyond the emirate, I want its roots to stay local. We want to preserve the concept in which it started: a teapot, a good gathering, and simple hospitality close to people."

That sense of belonging runs through everything they do. During Ramadan, Ibreeq took part in the community initiative Min Khair Ruwwadna, delivering iftar to people who were fasting. "Ramadan is associated with giving and solidarity, and we wanted Ibreeq to be involved in it."

The reward has been a room full of regulars. "People started treating Ibreeq as their own place, not just a shop they pass by once," he says. They return often enough that most now have a usual order.