This post was originally written for Honest Cooking.

It was very hot in Montreal today and I spent the afternoon poolside basking in the sun and heat. It was the absolute perfect day for this refreshing drink!

I grew up in Lebanon where, as a kid, I spent almost every day of every summer frolicking at the beach. There are certain tastes I associated with those carefree summer days, like salty hand-cut fries made even saltier by licking my sea salt laden fingers, or tiny fried fish dunked in hummus and eaten whole, head, bones and all.

This drink is definitely one of those tastes I associate with hot, lazy summer days… It was always a must around mid-afternoon when the sun was at its hottest. The refreshingly sweet taste always managed to quench my thirst but what I loved most about it was the heap of pine nuts and golden raisins that were so much fun to fish out from the bottom of the glass with your straw!

Jallab is a very popular drink in the Middle East. It’s made by diluting the syrup made of grape molasses, dates and rose water with water and serving it in a tall glass with crushed ice. It’s always topped with nuts, most of the time pine nuts and golden raisins, because a jallab without nuts is not really a jallab.

The jallab syrup can easily be found at any Middle Eastern grocery store. In Montreal, I buy my syrup at Adonis but I’m sure you can find it at many of the other Middle Eastern stores around town. Get yourself some pine nuts and golden raisins while you’re getting the syrup and you’ll be ready to make – and taste! – your first jallab!

 

• 3 Tbsp store-bought Jallab syrup
• 1 Tbsp golden raisins
• 1 Tbsp pine nuts
• Crushed ice