Reviving Arak in Palestine

mossad dishes. And it's a tradition in releast that's been consumed since the night the Tury. Hello. Hello, it's me west Stone, co founder and Point of Origin host Stephen Saderfield. It's been a few months since our last podcast. In the world that we left behind is so so much different. With more sitting and reading and reflecting in content and plating, we can start to see plainly the ways in which our most vulnerable communities have always been the ones most

closely bound to struggles for justice, land, and dignity. There is much to be garnered and understanding the past. We believe this so fiercely that we've dedicated our work to this premise entirely centering concepts like origin, anthropology, and indigeneity. We considered our role in this moment of social uprising and the ways in which it is related to our work. At first, we thought of maybe doing an entire season through the filter of COVID nineteen or the immense Black

Lives Matter mobilization. But as we started to prepare for this season, what became clear is that the thing we do best is also the thing that is the most helpful in this moment, and that thing is absorbing and discussing food culture from the perspective of the global and the historical. We cannot comment intelligently on food, social uprisings, pandemics, or really anything in between with a perspective that is

not international, intergenerational, and intersectional. So our plan for season three is the same as the first two, which is to explore the world of food worldwide, and in doing that, with the context that we provide and the people that we learn from, we hope helps us all understand the parts of our culture that are cyclical and collective, and how we can learn from past struggles to meet this

moment with unprecedented education and empathy. With that I'd like to welcome you all to Point of Origin Season three. We begin with a trip to Palestine to discover the history behind the lesser known spirit of Iraq. Wet Stone contributing journalist Lyric Lewin brings us to the Mwati Distillery. So, Lyric, you went to Palestine and met Notter and spent time on his land learning about Iraq, it's history and Palestine and how for not a producing Iraq is a revival

of sorts in terms of the tradition and also the methodology. Yes, so Eric is a spirit that is traditional in the lavant. It's distilled from indigenous grapes that are used in winemaking and infused with aniseeds. It's a really smooth drink with a kick of licorice to it. Most people are familiar with Italian sambuca or with uzu from Greece, but not a lot of people know that those are all derived

from the mother spirit Attack. The history of Iraq is really interesting because it evolved from the Arab invention of olymbic distillation around the eighth century, and basically olympics are these apparatus is used to distill or separate and purify substances, so they can be made from glass, ceramic, or copper. And they have two different parts. The bottom part will sit over a heat source and that contains the substance

that needs to be distilled. And then at the top is this bulb and tube sloping down and out so that when the vapors rise and flow through the tube, they can cool down and condense away from the heat source. So truly Europe and the rest of the world would not have their sambuca or uzu without this and scientific invention from the Levant and Muadi. Attack is made primarily with the dubuky grape, which is one of many indigenous

varietals in the West Bank. It's a white varietal that's large, round, sweet and juicy, and Nater wants to make sure that he has as much juice per grape as possible because those will have a higher sugar content and that will yield the higher alcohol content. So in Palastine we have twenty three indigenous species of grapes, about maybe you say eight or nine of them are suitable for wine, three of which are white barrietal. So that I used my attic.

I used primarily the bookie Um but there's also from Danny and Genderly. The Genderly you can tell that the berries are smaller, but they're much sweeter. The traditional way of growing vines in Palestine is in these beautiful goblet vines. The farmers grow the vines straight up like a little tree basically, so there's no trellising, and that way, due to the harsh sun, the canopies of leaves can serve

his protection for the grapes. Here's what Nater had to say growing up in the States, for me, like I had a very bicultural upbringing. Like on week like at school, we spoke English, but like when I came home, we

spoke Arabic. On the weekends we spoke Arabic. And whenever we had like public holidays, whether it's Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July, we always had, like you know, a small gathering of the Philadelphia Palesine community, and you know those gatherings, we always had Palestinian food, and we always had attack attic. It's it's to drink that's aynonymous with our cuisine, like it goes best with our food, and

we always had Lebanese attic. I don't remember any Palicine hottic ever being available there and the brands we had they were good, and we had like a Zook, we had Massai, a couple of good brands out there, and

I love that for me. Like at the time that I mean, I'm used to drink whatever, But like over the years, like I sort of realized that I don't enjoy beer or wine as much as I enjoy like when I was drinking, wouldrink whatever, but now like when you want to drink for pleasure, I enjoy at it because it just goes best with the food that we

eat here. Coming back here in like two thousand and seven, like I remember, I couldn't find good addict like I used to enjoy attic in the States, but like that act in the local market, it was just like I don't want to shoot anyone down, but it wasn't on par like I mean it burnt like going down. It was just it didn't have the flavor, didn't have viscosity, aroma. Um. It was just commercial. You can say um. And basically

what I used to do is um. You Lebanese products coming into Palace thinks Israel lebing On are technically of war. It's hard to get Lebanese goods into the West Bank because the West Bank is occupied by Israel. Um. So whenever I would go to Jordan's, which is you know, like a couple of hours trip, I would always you know, pick up some audict at the duty free and they usually have the popular lebing his brands, and I bring them in you know, my suitcase or not a duty

free bag or whatever. Um. And sometimes you know, if I didn't have any on me and I had like, you know, gathering of friends who wann't to go out and have a barbecue do whatever. Um, you know, I'd stopped by a liquor store. You'd always find the local attic and then you find like one bottle of like some Lebanese brand, but it would be like a hundred dollars per bottle, and you know, it got expensive and

it wasn't sustainable. And I figured, you know, if if if I'm like killing myself the good quality audict, I'm sure there's other attic lovers like you know, on the market and want to get it. So I I you know, I know some friends of mine who only drink exclusively like myself, and you know they were doing the same thing more or less, so I figured, you know, but maybe then it would be a better, are feasible route for me, just to explore the possibility of trying to

make out. And from there, I just like bought a bunch of books like that was back in two thousand ten on Amazon about the stealing and fermentation of grapes and making brandy. Really I studied how to make corniac and brandy um, and from there it's like an extra step how to make adduc um. I spent a lot, like a whole year basically reading upon it in different

websites forums, getting books off at Amazon. Two thousand eleven, I purchased like a really little hobby still, like a small six leader still, and I was making tiny batches. And from like two thousand you can say was my first batch, all the way up until about h or the two thousand, two thousand eighteen, like pretty much two thousand seventeen, I was making really tiny batches. I was making like I started out with like twenty bottles and thirty and forty, made a pop up to about almost

a hundred bottles um. And then I you know, I was basically trying to get people's feedback at first, and then I found that, you know, after after I got a recipe down and people enjoyed it, and you know, I appopriate at all the feedback that I, you know, seem to agree with. UM had sent up production a little bit, and see if I can sell it. You know, there wasn't interest people are asking me for it, So I forget if people are asking me for it and

giving it out for free, and mind as well. You know, see if I can make something out on the side, maybe one day can make a business out of it, right like over the because you know, over here there's a conflict, and you know, people here aren't very wealthy. There's you have like a very small upper class, and I get, but majority of people are probably don't have a lot of money, and there's a middle class fairly

exists here. UM. So I guess commercial producers over the year they began making like this inferior product that they call out of And I guess they did it because you know, if they want to sell, they have to sell something cheap. They need to sell some of people can afford to buy, and they cut a lot of corners and they began using like industrial alcohol and they would just buy it in like one thousand meter containers.

They'd knock it down as the water, and then they'd add like anisol flavoring too, like Annis flavor, and it was just like it was a cocktail operation. They just mix and bottle and that was it um And that's what made this inferior product on the market called addict. But the problem with that is that people got driven

away from Attic. You know, when people have a special occasion or gathering or they want to get a gift for somebody, and you know, they want to get something you know that would you know, reflect upon themselves as you know, I got you a nice gift or whatever. They're definitely not probiotic. I mean that the scene is like the poor Men's drink and you know, the drink of the masses, and a lot of people got it

went away from it. So I mean, like now people you know that they have this perception that Attic is inferior and that if you want to drink something good, you gotta drink whiskey or tequila, and they went towards the brown spirits um. So for me, like and then people they forgot all about like a lot of people here like even in Palace. I'm surprised, Like you know, it's the homeland of Addict. They don't even know how

Hoddic is made. They think it comes from Annessey and they don't know that it's actually a great brandy with annest flavoring. Um. And to me, I mean, some people, like my small circle of friends who drink addict, they were all enthusiastic about it, But the broader people they just didn't get, like like, why are you making out of not make something else? And some people, if you're

gonna make experience, go make whiskey. You know, people love whiskey. Um. But for me, I'm also I'm passionate about, like you know, upholding our tradition and our heritage. And for me, I think it's like a travesty to drink whiskey with Palestine, And truly I want to revive out it. I want

to make out it great again. UM. I love that because you're almost you had like, on top of everything else you're doing to make it, you almost had like a rebranding mission to like rebrand Iraq, to make it something that you could remind people know this is actually how amazing it can be. Yeah, I mean one of my goals I want to make people proud of out it. I want to revive like auducts, like glory and like um yeah, I want out to be like, you know,

something of national pride. Um. I feel like, you know, if we if it's these small things like where we if we give up on these small you know, parts of our heritage. You know that all these little bits like whether it's food or whether it's whatever, I mean, it makes up it's a fabric of our identity. If you give up on it, eventually you'll lose who you are. You lose your culture, you lose your you know, your

sense of self. We have a very rich gold in a traditions here in Palestine, and in particular like our our distilling heritage is very unique. I mean, if you saw on my website, we Arabs in the Van were the first to create distilling. We're the first to make spirits, were the first to you know, alcohols. In Arabic word alcohol comes from ahl eyeliner um. And that's what the still was created for because it was a must an alchemist who created it. And you would have never created

for alcohol. Um. But you know, and when I reached the shores of the Mediterranean. You know, all these countries, so what is its alcohol? And and now you have all these different spirits around the world who who you know, are off shoots of alcohol, whether it's pasties in France or San Buca and Italy, or Uzo in Greece or Rack turkeyan Splura and so on. Um so, I mean all these spirits come from this one mother spirit, which

is adduct, the oldest spirit in the world. And I just think that, you know, the International Commune knows enough about the spirit, and I don't think that it gets the respect that it deserves. So definitely I wanted to raise you know that the aspect of you know, are stilling heritage and wanted that to be known. And I just wanted to I said, I wanted people to know that I want to the Palestine and the map to let people in the Palestine produces high quality goods. Regarding

the policine narrative, I don't know. I mean, that's kind of one of the same for me, Like I mean, I try to I try not to go into the politics of the conflict when we talk about my atticum.

I mean like that that's sort of it, Like I wanted just to put ourselves in the map and let people, you know, to share our culture with the international community and um, you know, to share with the internationally, let the local people see you know, what we can do with you know, just the little means that we have here. I mean for me also, like I'm hyper sensitific about into the conflict. Like not for the fact that you know, everyone has a political stance. Politics, It's part of our

daily lives. You can think our pastime is sitting around and talking about politics. Um. But for me, like I don't want to make it like I don't want to like ride the conflict, you know what I mean, Like I don't want to. I don't want to talk about like I mean sure, like I buy my grapes from farmers, and I buy my annessey from farmers. My grapes in particularly come from a problematic area. Um it's scenario where

is really settlements are expanding. And I mean I have farmers that I buy from who frequently have settlers trustpassing on their property. They've been subject to a tax, oftentimes in military events them from reaching their land. But for me, like I don't want to make it like I don't want people to. I don't want to exploit the conflict, like I don't want to make it like part of my money, Like I don't want people to buy my product because it's made in Palestine because they like Palestine.

I want to support Palestine for me. I want people to drink my project because like I want them to just because they enjoy it. And one of my goals is to make you know, the Wald's most respected addict, and I want to do it as executively as possible. I want people to, you know, I want the quality

to to raise my product. I don't want to you know, umously like I mean, I don't want people like I know that sometimes the conflict here can be sexy and sometimes people might use that when it comes to marketing. They're goods locally for an international audience. That's not at all for me. And I'm not even trying to target international audience for me, like I mean, I'm barely having um I'm not barely able to meet local demands, like I released my first batch in in November and now

I'm completely sold out. So Stephen Noder has been working to triple his output for this year, he went from using a hobby still in his basement to opening and renovating his own distillery with certifications and equipment. So in order to keep up with higher production, he has to

secure more grapes from different Palestinian farmers. When I was there with him, it was the late September of twentyteen, and he was checking out the grapes at one of the farm he uses to confirm that they were ready for harvest and delivery, and then he took us to the farm which was an Area C so that is under Israeli military occupations. So there are a lot of settlements around there, Israeli settlements who are illegally coming in

and setting up um poems. And it's yeah, he nod makes it clear he doesn't ever want to to modify the conflict for his product, but I think it's worth noting because he has so many more obstacles to overcome to produce his adduct than than someone else. I mean, even the farm we were at, just over the fence, there was an Israeli winery, so they're shipping that out saying it's Israeli wine, but it's grown and produced on Palestinian soil. In the West Bank um, which was really upsetting.

But then we got to see the farm where he harvests from, and then he had this um table set up with all this mesa and we were able to eat and drink together, and it was it was absolutely incredible. But jo Joshi, I live in area see so area see it's I live in a Palastinian village, but the area I live in it's under is really military control. And all of the areas west of where I live, which are the villages that I'm getting from, they're also

under military control. There are there are like checkpoints in the area. I live right next to a military base. But I mean it depends on the situation on the ground. When things are tense, there'll be a lot more checkpoints, in sort of flying checkpoints. They'll be stopping people a lot more often. It's they don't have so many problems delivering the grapes to me as much as they do

have problems trying to care for the grapes. That's kind of how I frame it, because I mean, for me, it's not very for it's like a five minute drive.

I can be like any I can be like more of my first vineyards Um, but for me, it's more of a problem for them really, I mean to be honest, they faced a lot of problems because they live in like a very sensitive area where is really settlements are trying to expand and take over as much territory as they can, so they're constantly having you know, settlers invade their property, either uprooting vines, tearing down vines, bulldozing vines,

burning vines. Sometimes they're attacked for for being in their land. They try not to stay out there late, so they can only work during specific hours out of fear being attacked. Um. A lot of like the settlements, they have like a peripheral security or buffer zone, and oftentimes, you know, it's difficult for them to get into their their vineyards in those areas because if they do, they might be arrested

by the military. So sometimes they do it unlike you know, it's the Jewish holiday or if it's a Saturday, it's the holy day for the you know, so that settlers there aren't necessarily out it's more safe. They feel more safe going out to their vineyards that sort of thing. Yeah, I wanted to I'm obsessed with authenticity and doing things

a traditional way. So in Palestine we have twenty three indigenous species of grapes about maybe you say eight or nine of them are suitable for wine, three of which are white parietals. So that I used my attic. I used primarily the bookie, but there's also m Danny and genderly. The genderly you can tell that the berries are smaller, but they're much sweeter. The sugar component and them is crazy. You're just talking like roughly, like the sugar apper leader. Um.

But yeah, so I common to check periodically. Every week, I come and I take samples of all the berries. I try and get like one from each corner of an year, one in the center, different areas, and we decide on a weekly basis which winds the pick and how we go about. In general, what I do is I just take the grapes, I crush them, and then I throw them in barrels. And then after that second distillation that's the most complicated. Um, then we get in

the third distillation. For the third distillation, I take that purified spirit, I put it back in the still. Um. I reduced it down the thirty every time, because more than year at risk of making an explosion. Um. Yeah, so I put it back in the steel. Easily it's about like sevent um, so I water it down to about thirty. I put it back in the steel, and then I put aniseed in it. And what happens is

the aniseed as it soaks. I'll let it so for a period about twenty four hours, it will absorb the ethanol and it will release annimal, which is anas oil. And then the next day when I come back and instill it, basically the anti fall and the ethanol will be both the vaporizes together simultaneously. And when I cool that paper back into a liquid, now it's become one intertwined liquidum, which is the basis of auduct. And then from there I'll take it. I'll load it into clay casks.

I age it for a year, and roughly after a year or so, um, I'll just start taking samples towards the end, like I can dilute it down to strength which is fift and then from there we have product, and then I have bottled it. Number. This is a spirit that we're talking about, right, This is not a liqueur right because of the alcohol content and production method. Um. So I'm assuming you had a chance to taste um.

What were I mean? Because you flew halfway around the world without having tasted this, presumably, so like stories interesting, but hopefully it was a bonus if you got to taste it and it was enjoyable. Oh. Absolutely. We had a truly amazing experience with him while we were there.

So even to set the scene when we first met up with him in Jerusalem, not ever wanted to take us to some of his friends businesses too, so we got to try not only go and experience his um, his product, but also some of his friends who owned um ice cream shops where they made Booza ed a Bia, which is this amazing ice cream that has this elasticity that I've never experienced before in my life. And we went to lots of different places and we had canafe

and it was incredible. So all that leading up the night before we went to the farm where he harvests his grapes, we went out to a bar that is the only bar that serves his attic so it was really cool to get to see it on the shelf. And then we actually tried a wine that night that was made from Debuky grapes, so it was cool to get to experience the full process in that way where it was like we were tasting the wine from Debuky grapes, and then the next day we tasted the attic, which

was also made from the Debouky grapes. So when we went to his distillery, he showed us first he started the distillery in his basement, so we went to the basement of his house and from there is when he made his first batch. And from that first batch he submitted it to different festivals in London, in Berlin, in New York and one a word's like right away he came out of the gate like wanting people to know

like Palestine is a producer of high quality goods. The drink again, like I said, because it's infused with aniseeds, it has a light liquorice taste, but it is really refreshing and with it pairs perfectly with the mesay so with hummus and with pickles and olives and baba guanusian warm fresh pieda. It's so so divine. Yes, I love that over ice. Is that the best way? Yes, you can serve it over ice. But one of the interesting

things about attack is that when it's bottled. It's a clear liquid, but when you serve it, you dilute it with water and it turns into this cloudy liquid and that's known as the Luche effect. So basically, it's the spontaneous multification of the essential oil of the anniseed when it hits the water. So beautiful and I think UM. You know a lot of people aren't familiar with the tradition of distilling UM and the parts of the world,

especially when we think of UM, you know, the Islamic community. UM. We don't immediately in fact, that the we think about the opposite, which is an absinence from alcohol. So it is a really important part of UM. The reclamation and UM fits in so well with the kinds of stories that we see and cover all over the world, you know, where indigenousity UM is erased and the fight for it to be protected or revived. UM is really the cornerstone of so many producers that we cover. So UM, thank

you for bringing us yet another one. This is a really great story. It's great to learn about UM, the indigenous grades, to learn about, you know, how liquor or spirits are produced UM. Of course, the geopolitical content extend just the heart and spirit you know, to actually revive Iraq is really amazing, So thank you for bringing us this story and we're really excited to see it in

print for volume six as well. Thank you, Stephen. It's been so wonderful to work with you and your team, so I'm excited to see it and I'm excited for not as hard work to be out there for everyone to appreciate. Thank you so much. To our guest lyric Lewin and not Amati. You can read lyrics full article on not and Iroq in the upcoming volume of wet Stone wet Stone Volume six, which will be released this summer. We'd also like to thank our incredible podcast producer Selene Glazier. Selene,

you are the best. To our editor and wet Stone partner and director of video, David Alexander in London. I appreciate you, Dave. Thanks to our wet Stone production intern Quentin le Beau, and last but not least, my business partner Mel She who makes all things at Whetstone possible. Thank you Mel. We'd also like to thank our partners in production at I Heart Radio. To Gabrielle Collins, our

supervising producer and executive producer Christopher Haciotis. We'll be back next week with more from the world of food worldwide.