LEBANON’S ECONOMIC CRISIS FAILS TO DILUTE POPULARITY OF RAMADAN FAVOURITE JALLAB
▶ Beirut kiosks sell bottles of the dark, sweet fruit concentrate that comes infused with tradition and nostalgia
As the sun drops behind the tall apartment blocks that line Badr Demachkieh in western Beirut, a steady stream of vehicles begins to pull up outside the bakeries and drink shops on the road.
Customers run in to grab a variety of cakes and refreshments for iftar, before heading home as darkness begins to fall.
At the roadside Juicy Frutti drinks kiosk, six large tubs churn different drinks to keep them fresh.
The juices include jallab, a Ramadan refreshment popular in countries such as Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
Sleiman Al Ali, who owns the kiosk, reaches for one of the many empty water bottles he stores in a bag before filling it with jallab.
The dark, sweet drink is made by diluting a syrup of rose water and date molasses and is often topped with ice, pine nuts and raisins.
“Here we have pistachios, pine nuts, cashews. You have these with jallab,” Mr Ali says as his colleague, Omar El Haj, serves a customer.
The economic crisis in Lebanon, which has forced more than 75 per cent of the population into poverty, has hit demand.
“People are finding the current situation difficult,” Mr Ali says. “Before, they might have taken two or three bottles. Now, they’re only taking a bottle here and there.
“Sometimes there are customers, sometimes there aren’t. But during Ramadan, they’re always here.”
He has sold more than jallab to those preparing to break their fast during Ramadan.
“Liquorice is particularly popular to have after iftar … it’s great as a thirstquencher,” says Mr El Haj.
It is believed that bottles of jallab syrup were introduced in the 1980s by drinks manufacturer Kassatly Chtaura, which was founded in 1974 by Akram Kassatly.
The move was sparked by clients in Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia, who asked him to bottle concentrated jallab syrup that they could dilute at home. Mr Kassatly sought out one of the most famous sellers of jallab in the markets of the Lebanese capital to learn his recipe.
“At the same time, in the 1980s, advertisements started,” says Nayef Kassatly, general manager at Kassatly Chtaura and Akram’s son.
The company was behind a famous Lebanese advertisement for jallab.
“We created a beautiful movie … a very nice song, all about the fantasy world of jallab that comes around it, during Ramadan, during summer and so on,” he says.
“That was really the turning point of Kassatly Chtaura. Jallab was the pillar of the success of our company. One thing led to another and today we are in all types of beverages.
“Our essence and our DNA comes from how my father turned a famous beverage that everybody drinks on the streets into a concentrated version that you can find on the shelves.”
He believes the company’s strong advertising during the civil war helped to boost sales.
“We were advertising on the news. Everybody was in shelters watching TV, seeing the jallab commercial,” he says.
Mr Kassatly believes there is a nostalgia for the days before the war when the drink was sold on the streets.
“It’s like grabbing the past. This is why this fantasy was created around it,” he says.
Jallab was once available throughout the year, but it became more of a seasonal drink as fruit juices grew in popularity, he says.
“When I was young, my mum used to dilute a jallab bottle, put it in the freezer, soak some pine seeds and dry raisins,” he says.
“She used to crush them, put them in a glass and call us from the pool – ‘Guys, come refresh yourselves.’ But that was the old times. With time, fruit juices came in.”
He says that, because of the economic crisis and decrease in purchasing power, jallab has become a luxury.
“It was like the bread on the table during Ramadan,” he says. “Ramadan without jallab doesn’t exist ... didn’t exist. Today it does.”
The drink is made by diluting a syrup of rose water and date molasses and is often topped with ice, pine nuts and raisins