Speaker 1: Product is the oldest spirit in the world. It's the
Speaker 1: mother spirit of all spirits. I mean, even the word
Speaker 1: alcohol is an Arabic word. It comes from the word
Speaker 1: as spirit that was shipped in Plason as far as Mongol. Yeah,
Speaker 1: today refer to the category of spirits and itself to Eric.
Speaker 1: But Eric in itself is basically a triple distilled great brandy.
Speaker 1: It's usually enjoyed with a meal where it slipped slowly
Speaker 1: over the course of several hours with different types of
Speaker 1: mossad dishes. And it's a tradition in releast that's been
Speaker 1: consumed since the night the Tury. Hello. Hello, it's me
Speaker 1: west Stone, co founder and Point of Origin host Stephen Saderfield.
Speaker 1: It's been a few months since our last podcast. In
Speaker 1: the world that we left behind is so so much different.
Speaker 1: With more sitting and reading and reflecting in content and plating,
Speaker 1: we can start to see plainly the ways in which
Speaker 1: our most vulnerable communities have always been the ones most
Speaker 1: closely bound to struggles for justice, land, and dignity. There
Speaker 1: is much to be garnered and understanding the past. We
Speaker 1: believe this so fiercely that we've dedicated our work to
Speaker 1: this premise entirely centering concepts like origin, anthropology, and indigeneity.
Speaker 1: We considered our role in this moment of social uprising
Speaker 1: and the ways in which it is related to our work.
Speaker 1: At first, we thought of maybe doing an entire season
Speaker 1: through the filter of COVID nineteen or the immense Black
Speaker 1: Lives Matter mobilization. But as we started to prepare for
Speaker 1: this season, what became clear is that the thing we
Speaker 1: do best is also the thing that is the most
Speaker 1: helpful in this moment, and that thing is absorbing and
Speaker 1: discussing food culture from the perspective of the global and
Speaker 1: the historical. We cannot comment intelligently on food, social uprisings, pandemics,
Speaker 1: or really anything in between with a perspective that is
Speaker 1: not international, intergenerational, and intersectional. So our plan for season
Speaker 1: three is the same as the first two, which is
Speaker 1: to explore the world of food worldwide, and in doing that,
Speaker 1: with the context that we provide and the people that
Speaker 1: we learn from, we hope helps us all understand the
Speaker 1: parts of our culture that are cyclical and collective, and
Speaker 1: how we can learn from past struggles to meet this
Speaker 1: moment with unprecedented education and empathy. With that I'd like
Speaker 1: to welcome you all to Point of Origin Season three.
Speaker 1: We begin with a trip to Palestine to discover the
Speaker 1: history behind the lesser known spirit of Iraq. Wet Stone
Speaker 1: contributing journalist Lyric Lewin brings us to the Mwati Distillery. So, Lyric,
Speaker 1: you went to Palestine and met Notter and spent time
Speaker 1: on his land learning about Iraq, it's history and Palestine
Speaker 1: and how for not a producing Iraq is a revival
Speaker 1: of sorts in terms of the tradition and also the methodology. Yes,
Speaker 1: so Eric is a spirit that is traditional in the lavant.
Speaker 1: It's distilled from indigenous grapes that are used in winemaking
Speaker 1: and infused with aniseeds. It's a really smooth drink with
Speaker 1: a kick of licorice to it. Most people are familiar
Speaker 1: with Italian sambuca or with uzu from Greece, but not
Speaker 1: a lot of people know that those are all derived
Speaker 1: from the mother spirit Attack. The history of Iraq is
Speaker 1: really interesting because it evolved from the Arab invention of
Speaker 1: olymbic distillation around the eighth century, and basically olympics are
Speaker 1: these apparatus is used to distill or separate and purify substances,
Speaker 1: so they can be made from glass, ceramic, or copper.
Speaker 1: And they have two different parts. The bottom part will
Speaker 1: sit over a heat source and that contains the substance
Speaker 1: that needs to be distilled. And then at the top
Speaker 1: is this bulb and tube sloping down and out so
Speaker 1: that when the vapors rise and flow through the tube,
Speaker 1: they can cool down and condense away from the heat source.
Speaker 1: So truly Europe and the rest of the world would
Speaker 1: not have their sambuca or uzu without this and scientific
Speaker 1: invention from the Levant and Muadi. Attack is made primarily
Speaker 1: with the dubuky grape, which is one of many indigenous
Speaker 1: varietals in the West Bank. It's a white varietal that's large, round,
Speaker 1: sweet and juicy, and Nater wants to make sure that
Speaker 1: he has as much juice per grape as possible because
Speaker 1: those will have a higher sugar content and that will
Speaker 1: yield the higher alcohol content. So in Palastine we have
Speaker 1: twenty three indigenous species of grapes, about maybe you say
Speaker 1: eight or nine of them are suitable for wine, three
Speaker 1: of which are white barrietal. So that I used my attic.
Speaker 1: I used primarily the bookie Um but there's also from
Speaker 1: Danny and Genderly. The Genderly you can tell that the
Speaker 1: berries are smaller, but they're much sweeter. The traditional way
Speaker 1: of growing vines in Palestine is in these beautiful goblet vines.
Speaker 1: The farmers grow the vines straight up like a little
Speaker 1: tree basically, so there's no trellising, and that way, due
Speaker 1: to the harsh sun, the canopies of leaves can serve
Speaker 1: his protection for the grapes. Here's what Nater had to
Speaker 1: say growing up in the States, for me, like I
Speaker 1: had a very bicultural upbringing. Like on week like at school,
Speaker 1: we spoke English, but like when I came home, we
Speaker 1: spoke Arabic. On the weekends we spoke Arabic. And whenever
Speaker 1: we had like public holidays, whether it's Thanksgiving or the
Speaker 1: Fourth of July, we always had, like you know, a
Speaker 1: small gathering of the Philadelphia Palesine community, and you know
Speaker 1: those gatherings, we always had Palestinian food, and we always
Speaker 1: had attack attic. It's it's to drink that's aynonymous with
Speaker 1: our cuisine, like it goes best with our food, and
Speaker 1: we always had Lebanese attic. I don't remember any Palicine
Speaker 1: hottic ever being available there and the brands we had
Speaker 1: they were good, and we had like a Zook, we
Speaker 1: had Massai, a couple of good brands out there, and
Speaker 1: I love that for me. Like at the time that
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm used to drink whatever, But like over
Speaker 1: the years, like I sort of realized that I don't
Speaker 1: enjoy beer or wine as much as I enjoy like
Speaker 1: when I was drinking, wouldrink whatever, but now like when
Speaker 1: you want to drink for pleasure, I enjoy at it
Speaker 1: because it just goes best with the food that we
Speaker 1: eat here. Coming back here in like two thousand and seven,
Speaker 1: like I remember, I couldn't find good addict like I
Speaker 1: used to enjoy attic in the States, but like that
Speaker 1: act in the local market, it was just like I
Speaker 1: don't want to shoot anyone down, but it wasn't on
Speaker 1: par like I mean it burnt like going down. It
Speaker 1: was just it didn't have the flavor, didn't have viscosity, aroma. Um.
Speaker 1: It was just commercial. You can say um. And basically
Speaker 1: what I used to do is um. You Lebanese products
Speaker 1: coming into Palace thinks Israel lebing On are technically of war.
Speaker 1: It's hard to get Lebanese goods into the West Bank
Speaker 1: because the West Bank is occupied by Israel. Um. So
Speaker 1: whenever I would go to Jordan's, which is you know,
Speaker 1: like a couple of hours trip, I would always you know,
Speaker 1: pick up some audict at the duty free and they
Speaker 1: usually have the popular lebing his brands, and I bring
Speaker 1: them in you know, my suitcase or not a duty
Speaker 1: free bag or whatever. Um. And sometimes you know, if
Speaker 1: I didn't have any on me and I had like,
Speaker 1: you know, gathering of friends who wann't to go out
Speaker 1: and have a barbecue do whatever. Um, you know, I'd
Speaker 1: stopped by a liquor store. You'd always find the local
Speaker 1: attic and then you find like one bottle of like
Speaker 1: some Lebanese brand, but it would be like a hundred
Speaker 1: dollars per bottle, and you know, it got expensive and
Speaker 1: it wasn't sustainable. And I figured, you know, if if
Speaker 1: if I'm like killing myself the good quality audict, I'm
Speaker 1: sure there's other attic lovers like you know, on the
Speaker 1: market and want to get it. So I I you know,
Speaker 1: I know some friends of mine who only drink exclusively
Speaker 1: like myself, and you know they were doing the same
Speaker 1: thing more or less, so I figured, you know, but
Speaker 1: maybe then it would be a better, are feasible route
Speaker 1: for me, just to explore the possibility of trying to
Speaker 1: make out. And from there, I just like bought a
Speaker 1: bunch of books like that was back in two thousand
Speaker 1: ten on Amazon about the stealing and fermentation of grapes
Speaker 1: and making brandy. Really I studied how to make corniac
Speaker 1: and brandy um, and from there it's like an extra
Speaker 1: step how to make adduc um. I spent a lot,
Speaker 1: like a whole year basically reading upon it in different
Speaker 1: websites forums, getting books off at Amazon. Two thousand eleven,
Speaker 1: I purchased like a really little hobby still, like a
Speaker 1: small six leader still, and I was making tiny batches.
Speaker 1: And from like two thousand you can say was my
Speaker 1: first batch, all the way up until about h or
Speaker 1: the two thousand, two thousand eighteen, like pretty much two
Speaker 1: thousand seventeen, I was making really tiny batches. I was
Speaker 1: making like I started out with like twenty bottles and
Speaker 1: thirty and forty, made a pop up to about almost
Speaker 1: a hundred bottles um. And then I you know, I
Speaker 1: was basically trying to get people's feedback at first, and
Speaker 1: then I found that, you know, after after I got
Speaker 1: a recipe down and people enjoyed it, and you know,
Speaker 1: I appopriate at all the feedback that I, you know,
Speaker 1: seem to agree with. UM had sent up production a
Speaker 1: little bit, and see if I can sell it. You know,
Speaker 1: there wasn't interest people are asking me for it, So
Speaker 1: I forget if people are asking me for it and
Speaker 1: giving it out for free, and mind as well. You know,
Speaker 1: see if I can make something out on the side,
Speaker 1: maybe one day can make a business out of it,
Speaker 1: right like over the because you know, over here there's
Speaker 1: a conflict, and you know, people here aren't very wealthy.
Speaker 1: There's you have like a very small upper class, and
Speaker 1: I get, but majority of people are probably don't have
Speaker 1: a lot of money, and there's a middle class fairly
Speaker 1: exists here. UM. So I guess commercial producers over the
Speaker 1: year they began making like this inferior product that they
Speaker 1: call out of And I guess they did it because
Speaker 1: you know, if they want to sell, they have to
Speaker 1: sell something cheap. They need to sell some of people
Speaker 1: can afford to buy, and they cut a lot of
Speaker 1: corners and they began using like industrial alcohol and they
Speaker 1: would just buy it in like one thousand meter containers.
Speaker 1: They'd knock it down as the water, and then they'd
Speaker 1: add like anisol flavoring too, like Annis flavor, and it
Speaker 1: was just like it was a cocktail operation. They just
Speaker 1: mix and bottle and that was it um And that's
Speaker 1: what made this inferior product on the market called addict.
Speaker 1: But the problem with that is that people got driven
Speaker 1: away from Attic. You know, when people have a special
Speaker 1: occasion or gathering or they want to get a gift
Speaker 1: for somebody, and you know, they want to get something
Speaker 1: you know that would you know, reflect upon themselves as
Speaker 1: you know, I got you a nice gift or whatever.
Speaker 1: They're definitely not probiotic. I mean that the scene is
Speaker 1: like the poor Men's drink and you know, the drink
Speaker 1: of the masses, and a lot of people got it
Speaker 1: went away from it. So I mean, like now people
Speaker 1: you know that they have this perception that Attic is
Speaker 1: inferior and that if you want to drink something good,
Speaker 1: you gotta drink whiskey or tequila, and they went towards
Speaker 1: the brown spirits um. So for me, like and then
Speaker 1: people they forgot all about like a lot of people
Speaker 1: here like even in Palace. I'm surprised, Like you know,
Speaker 1: it's the homeland of Addict. They don't even know how
Speaker 1: Hoddic is made. They think it comes from Annessey and
Speaker 1: they don't know that it's actually a great brandy with
Speaker 1: annest flavoring. Um. And to me, I mean, some people,
Speaker 1: like my small circle of friends who drink addict, they
Speaker 1: were all enthusiastic about it, But the broader people they
Speaker 1: just didn't get, like like, why are you making out
Speaker 1: of not make something else? And some people, if you're
Speaker 1: gonna make experience, go make whiskey. You know, people love whiskey. Um.
Speaker 1: But for me, I'm also I'm passionate about, like you know,
Speaker 1: upholding our tradition and our heritage. And for me, I
Speaker 1: think it's like a travesty to drink whiskey with Palestine,
Speaker 1: And truly I want to revive out it. I want
Speaker 1: to make out it great again. UM. I love that
Speaker 1: because you're almost you had like, on top of everything
Speaker 1: else you're doing to make it, you almost had like
Speaker 1: a rebranding mission to like rebrand Iraq, to make it
Speaker 1: something that you could remind people know this is actually
Speaker 1: how amazing it can be. Yeah, I mean one of
Speaker 1: my goals I want to make people proud of out it.
Speaker 1: I want to revive like auducts, like glory and like
Speaker 1: um yeah, I want out to be like, you know,
Speaker 1: something of national pride. Um. I feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: if we if it's these small things like where we
Speaker 1: if we give up on these small you know, parts
Speaker 1: of our heritage. You know that all these little bits
Speaker 1: like whether it's food or whether it's whatever, I mean,
Speaker 1: it makes up it's a fabric of our identity. If
Speaker 1: you give up on it, eventually you'll lose who you are.
Speaker 1: You lose your culture, you lose your you know, your
Speaker 1: sense of self. We have a very rich gold in
Speaker 1: a traditions here in Palestine, and in particular like our
Speaker 1: our distilling heritage is very unique. I mean, if you
Speaker 1: saw on my website, we Arabs in the Van were
Speaker 1: the first to create distilling. We're the first to make spirits,
Speaker 1: were the first to you know, alcohols. In Arabic word
Speaker 1: alcohol comes from ahl eyeliner um. And that's what the
Speaker 1: still was created for because it was a must an
Speaker 1: alchemist who created it. And you would have never created
Speaker 1: for alcohol. Um. But you know, and when I reached
Speaker 1: the shores of the Mediterranean. You know, all these countries,
Speaker 1: so what is its alcohol? And and now you have
Speaker 1: all these different spirits around the world who who you know,
Speaker 1: are off shoots of alcohol, whether it's pasties in France
Speaker 1: or San Buca and Italy, or Uzo in Greece or
Speaker 1: Rack turkeyan Splura and so on. Um so, I mean
Speaker 1: all these spirits come from this one mother spirit, which
Speaker 1: is adduct, the oldest spirit in the world. And I
Speaker 1: just think that, you know, the International Commune knows enough
Speaker 1: about the spirit, and I don't think that it gets
Speaker 1: the respect that it deserves. So definitely I wanted to
Speaker 1: raise you know that the aspect of you know, are
Speaker 1: stilling heritage and wanted that to be known. And I
Speaker 1: just wanted to I said, I wanted people to know
Speaker 1: that I want to the Palestine and the map to
Speaker 1: let people in the Palestine produces high quality goods. Regarding
Speaker 1: the policine narrative, I don't know. I mean, that's kind
Speaker 1: of one of the same for me, Like I mean,
Speaker 1: I try to I try not to go into the
Speaker 1: politics of the conflict when we talk about my atticum.
Speaker 1: I mean like that that's sort of it, Like I
Speaker 1: wanted just to put ourselves in the map and let people,
Speaker 1: you know, to share our culture with the international community
Speaker 1: and um, you know, to share with the internationally, let
Speaker 1: the local people see you know, what we can do
Speaker 1: with you know, just the little means that we have here.
Speaker 1: I mean for me also, like I'm hyper sensitific about
Speaker 1: into the conflict. Like not for the fact that you know,
Speaker 1: everyone has a political stance. Politics, It's part of our
Speaker 1: daily lives. You can think our pastime is sitting around
Speaker 1: and talking about politics. Um. But for me, like I
Speaker 1: don't want to make it like I don't want to
Speaker 1: like ride the conflict, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: I don't want to. I don't want to talk about
Speaker 1: like I mean sure, like I buy my grapes from farmers,
Speaker 1: and I buy my annessey from farmers. My grapes in
Speaker 1: particularly come from a problematic area. Um it's scenario where
Speaker 1: is really settlements are expanding. And I mean I have
Speaker 1: farmers that I buy from who frequently have settlers trustpassing
Speaker 1: on their property. They've been subject to a tax, oftentimes
Speaker 1: in military events them from reaching their land. But for me,
Speaker 1: like I don't want to make it like I don't
Speaker 1: want people to. I don't want to exploit the conflict,
Speaker 1: like I don't want to make it like part of
Speaker 1: my money, Like I don't want people to buy my
Speaker 1: product because it's made in Palestine because they like Palestine.
Speaker 1: I want to support Palestine for me. I want people
Speaker 1: to drink my project because like I want them to
Speaker 1: just because they enjoy it. And one of my goals
Speaker 1: is to make you know, the Wald's most respected addict,
Speaker 1: and I want to do it as executively as possible.
Speaker 1: I want people to, you know, I want the quality
Speaker 1: to to raise my product. I don't want to you know,
Speaker 1: umously like I mean, I don't want people like I
Speaker 1: know that sometimes the conflict here can be sexy and
Speaker 1: sometimes people might use that when it comes to marketing.
Speaker 1: They're goods locally for an international audience. That's not at
Speaker 1: all for me. And I'm not even trying to target
Speaker 1: international audience for me, like I mean, I'm barely having
Speaker 1: um I'm not barely able to meet local demands, like
Speaker 1: I released my first batch in in November and now
Speaker 1: I'm completely sold out. So Stephen Noder has been working
Speaker 1: to triple his output for this year, he went from
Speaker 1: using a hobby still in his basement to opening and
Speaker 1: renovating his own distillery with certifications and equipment. So in
Speaker 1: order to keep up with higher production, he has to
Speaker 1: secure more grapes from different Palestinian farmers. When I was
Speaker 1: there with him, it was the late September of twentyteen,
Speaker 1: and he was checking out the grapes at one of
Speaker 1: the farm he uses to confirm that they were ready
Speaker 1: for harvest and delivery, and then he took us to
Speaker 1: the farm which was an Area C so that is
Speaker 1: under Israeli military occupations. So there are a lot of
Speaker 1: settlements around there, Israeli settlements who are illegally coming in
Speaker 1: and setting up um poems. And it's yeah, he nod
Speaker 1: makes it clear he doesn't ever want to to modify
Speaker 1: the conflict for his product, but I think it's worth
Speaker 1: noting because he has so many more obstacles to overcome
Speaker 1: to produce his adduct than than someone else. I mean,
Speaker 1: even the farm we were at, just over the fence,
Speaker 1: there was an Israeli winery, so they're shipping that out
Speaker 1: saying it's Israeli wine, but it's grown and produced on
Speaker 1: Palestinian soil. In the West Bank um, which was really upsetting.
Speaker 1: But then we got to see the farm where he
Speaker 1: harvests from, and then he had this um table set
Speaker 1: up with all this mesa and we were able to
Speaker 1: eat and drink together, and it was it was absolutely incredible.
Speaker 1: But jo Joshi, I live in area see so area
Speaker 1: see it's I live in a Palastinian village, but the
Speaker 1: area I live in it's under is really military control.
Speaker 1: And all of the areas west of where I live,
Speaker 1: which are the villages that I'm getting from, they're also
Speaker 1: under military control. There are there are like checkpoints in
Speaker 1: the area. I live right next to a military base.
Speaker 1: But I mean it depends on the situation on the ground.
Speaker 1: When things are tense, there'll be a lot more checkpoints,
Speaker 1: in sort of flying checkpoints. They'll be stopping people a
Speaker 1: lot more often. It's they don't have so many problems
Speaker 1: delivering the grapes to me as much as they do
Speaker 1: have problems trying to care for the grapes. That's kind
Speaker 1: of how I frame it, because I mean, for me,
Speaker 1: it's not very for it's like a five minute drive.
Speaker 1: I can be like any I can be like more
Speaker 1: of my first vineyards Um, but for me, it's more
Speaker 1: of a problem for them really, I mean to be honest,
Speaker 1: they faced a lot of problems because they live in
Speaker 1: like a very sensitive area where is really settlements are
Speaker 1: trying to expand and take over as much territory as
Speaker 1: they can, so they're constantly having you know, settlers invade
Speaker 1: their property, either uprooting vines, tearing down vines, bulldozing vines,
Speaker 1: burning vines. Sometimes they're attacked for for being in their land.
Speaker 1: They try not to stay out there late, so they
Speaker 1: can only work during specific hours out of fear being attacked. Um.
Speaker 1: A lot of like the settlements, they have like a
Speaker 1: peripheral security or buffer zone, and oftentimes, you know, it's
Speaker 1: difficult for them to get into their their vineyards in
Speaker 1: those areas because if they do, they might be arrested
Speaker 1: by the military. So sometimes they do it unlike you know,
Speaker 1: it's the Jewish holiday or if it's a Saturday, it's
Speaker 1: the holy day for the you know, so that settlers
Speaker 1: there aren't necessarily out it's more safe. They feel more
Speaker 1: safe going out to their vineyards that sort of thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wanted to I'm obsessed with authenticity and doing things
Speaker 1: a traditional way. So in Palestine we have twenty three
Speaker 1: indigenous species of grapes about maybe you say eight or
Speaker 1: nine of them are suitable for wine, three of which
Speaker 1: are white parietals. So that I used my attic. I
Speaker 1: used primarily the bookie, but there's also m Danny and genderly.
Speaker 1: The genderly you can tell that the berries are smaller,
Speaker 1: but they're much sweeter. The sugar component and them is crazy.
Speaker 1: You're just talking like roughly, like the sugar apper leader. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so I common to check periodically. Every week,
Speaker 1: I come and I take samples of all the berries.
Speaker 1: I try and get like one from each corner of
Speaker 1: an year, one in the center, different areas, and we
Speaker 1: decide on a weekly basis which winds the pick and
Speaker 1: how we go about. In general, what I do is
Speaker 1: I just take the grapes, I crush them, and then
Speaker 1: I throw them in barrels. And then after that second
Speaker 1: distillation that's the most complicated. Um, then we get in
Speaker 1: the third distillation. For the third distillation, I take that
Speaker 1: purified spirit, I put it back in the still. Um.
Speaker 1: I reduced it down the thirty every time, because more
Speaker 1: than year at risk of making an explosion. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I put it back in the steel. Easily it's
Speaker 1: about like sevent um, so I water it down to
Speaker 1: about thirty. I put it back in the steel, and
Speaker 1: then I put aniseed in it. And what happens is
Speaker 1: the aniseed as it soaks. I'll let it so for
Speaker 1: a period about twenty four hours, it will absorb the
Speaker 1: ethanol and it will release annimal, which is anas oil.
Speaker 1: And then the next day when I come back and
Speaker 1: instill it, basically the anti fall and the ethanol will
Speaker 1: be both the vaporizes together simultaneously. And when I cool
Speaker 1: that paper back into a liquid, now it's become one
Speaker 1: intertwined liquidum, which is the basis of auduct. And then
Speaker 1: from there I'll take it. I'll load it into clay casks.
Speaker 1: I age it for a year, and roughly after a
Speaker 1: year or so, um, I'll just start taking samples towards
Speaker 1: the end, like I can dilute it down to strength
Speaker 1: which is fift and then from there we have product,
Speaker 1: and then I have bottled it. Number. This is a
Speaker 1: spirit that we're talking about, right, This is not a
Speaker 1: liqueur right because of the alcohol content and production method. Um.
Speaker 1: So I'm assuming you had a chance to taste um.
Speaker 1: What were I mean? Because you flew halfway around the
Speaker 1: world without having tasted this, presumably, so like stories interesting,
Speaker 1: but hopefully it was a bonus if you got to
Speaker 1: taste it and it was enjoyable. Oh. Absolutely. We had
Speaker 1: a truly amazing experience with him while we were there.
Speaker 1: So even to set the scene when we first met
Speaker 1: up with him in Jerusalem, not ever wanted to take
Speaker 1: us to some of his friends businesses too, so we
Speaker 1: got to try not only go and experience his um,
Speaker 1: his product, but also some of his friends who owned
Speaker 1: um ice cream shops where they made Booza ed a Bia,
Speaker 1: which is this amazing ice cream that has this elasticity
Speaker 1: that I've never experienced before in my life. And we
Speaker 1: went to lots of different places and we had canafe
Speaker 1: and it was incredible. So all that leading up the
Speaker 1: night before we went to the farm where he harvests
Speaker 1: his grapes, we went out to a bar that is
Speaker 1: the only bar that serves his attic so it was
Speaker 1: really cool to get to see it on the shelf.
Speaker 1: And then we actually tried a wine that night that
Speaker 1: was made from Debuky grapes, so it was cool to
Speaker 1: get to experience the full process in that way where
Speaker 1: it was like we were tasting the wine from Debuky grapes,
Speaker 1: and then the next day we tasted the attic, which
Speaker 1: was also made from the Debouky grapes. So when we
Speaker 1: went to his distillery, he showed us first he started
Speaker 1: the distillery in his basement, so we went to the
Speaker 1: basement of his house and from there is when he
Speaker 1: made his first batch. And from that first batch he
Speaker 1: submitted it to different festivals in London, in Berlin, in
Speaker 1: New York and one a word's like right away he
Speaker 1: came out of the gate like wanting people to know
Speaker 1: like Palestine is a producer of high quality goods. The
Speaker 1: drink again, like I said, because it's infused with aniseeds,
Speaker 1: it has a light liquorice taste, but it is really
Speaker 1: refreshing and with it pairs perfectly with the mesay so
Speaker 1: with hummus and with pickles and olives and baba guanusian
Speaker 1: warm fresh pieda. It's so so divine. Yes, I love
Speaker 1: that over ice. Is that the best way? Yes, you
Speaker 1: can serve it over ice. But one of the interesting
Speaker 1: things about attack is that when it's bottled. It's a
Speaker 1: clear liquid, but when you serve it, you dilute it
Speaker 1: with water and it turns into this cloudy liquid and
Speaker 1: that's known as the Luche effect. So basically, it's the
Speaker 1: spontaneous multification of the essential oil of the anniseed when
Speaker 1: it hits the water. So beautiful and I think UM.
Speaker 1: You know a lot of people aren't familiar with the
Speaker 1: tradition of distilling UM and the parts of the world,
Speaker 1: especially when we think of UM, you know, the Islamic community. UM.
Speaker 1: We don't immediately in fact, that the we think about
Speaker 1: the opposite, which is an absinence from alcohol. So it
Speaker 1: is a really important part of UM. The reclamation and
Speaker 1: UM fits in so well with the kinds of stories
Speaker 1: that we see and cover all over the world, you know,
Speaker 1: where indigenousity UM is erased and the fight for it
Speaker 1: to be protected or revived. UM is really the cornerstone
Speaker 1: of so many producers that we cover. So UM, thank
Speaker 1: you for bringing us yet another one. This is a
Speaker 1: really great story. It's great to learn about UM, the
Speaker 1: indigenous grades, to learn about, you know, how liquor or
Speaker 1: spirits are produced UM. Of course, the geopolitical content extend
Speaker 1: just the heart and spirit you know, to actually revive
Speaker 1: Iraq is really amazing, So thank you for bringing us
Speaker 1: this story and we're really excited to see it in
Speaker 1: print for volume six as well. Thank you, Stephen. It's
Speaker 1: been so wonderful to work with you and your team,
Speaker 1: so I'm excited to see it and I'm excited for
Speaker 1: not as hard work to be out there for everyone
Speaker 1: to appreciate. Thank you so much. To our guest lyric
Speaker 1: Lewin and not Amati. You can read lyrics full article
Speaker 1: on not and Iroq in the upcoming volume of wet
Speaker 1: Stone wet Stone Volume six, which will be released this summer.
Speaker 1: We'd also like to thank our incredible podcast producer Selene Glazier. Selene,
Speaker 1: you are the best. To our editor and wet Stone
Speaker 1: partner and director of video, David Alexander in London. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you, Dave. Thanks to our wet Stone production intern
Speaker 1: Quentin le Beau, and last but not least, my business
Speaker 1: partner Mel She who makes all things at Whetstone possible.
Speaker 1: Thank you Mel. We'd also like to thank our partners
Speaker 1: in production at I Heart Radio. To Gabrielle Collins, our
Speaker 1: supervising producer and executive producer Christopher Haciotis. We'll be back
Speaker 1: next week with more from the world of food worldwide.