Jallab
Date syrup and rosewater over crushed ice, with raisins and pine nuts floating on top.
CC BY 2.0 · Cropped, white-balanced, graded and re-encoded to WebP by eXir.
A glass of dark red jallab syrup drink with pine nuts floating on top
Serving
Drink spec, per drink
Every figure above is per drink and does not move with the count, which is what makes the two service modes comparable. Sugar per litre, strength and standard drinks stay in the units their own authorities publish, because they are figures for comparing rather than for pouring.
Diet and allergen labels are computed from the ingredients listed on this page and nothing else. They cannot account for cross-contamination or for the particular product you buy, and they are not medical or safety guidance.
Ingredients
Glass
Vessel
140 ml of liquid plus 246 ml of crushed ice occupies about 386 ml, inside the 400 ml the glass holds. The build fails if a recipe ever exceeds its stated vessel.
A batch needs a vessel that closes and fits a fridge shelf.
Method
2 steps · 35sStir the 30 ml date syrup and the 4 ml rosewater with the 106 ml water in a glass packed with crushed ice.
Scatter the 8 g raisins and the 6 g pine nuts over the top.
Raisins and pine nuts are scattered on top rather than stirred in, so they sit on the surface of the crushed ice and are spooned up through the straw as the drink is drunk rather than settling at the bottom of the glass.
Common pitfallBuilt with too little ice, the syrup and rosewater stay concentrated and cloying rather than opening up into the light, floral drink jallab is meant to be; it wants a genuinely full glass of crushed ice rather than a few cubes.
Keeping and make-ahead
Batched ahead, this keeps sealed and cold. The water line the engine adds is the dilution figure from the spec panel, not a rule of thumb.
About
A Levantine date syrup drink descended from dibis, an older date and grape molasses tradition also used, in the same form, as a Passover haroset by some Jewish communities of Iraq and India.
Jallab is made from date and grape molasses and rosewater, diluted with water and served over crushed ice with raisins and pine nuts floating on the surface 1. It descends from dibis, also called halek, an older date and grape syrup tradition associated with Iraq and with Jewish communities of Iraq and India 2. In its traditional form, dates were soaked and boiled, the liquid filtered through cheesecloth, and then concentrated either by simmering it down or by leaving it in trays in the sun until it thickened into a dense syrup 2. That slow, sun-concentrated syrup is largely a home and small-producer method today; most jallab syrup sold commercially is made by faster, industrial reduction 2.
The drink is closely tied to Ramadan in the Levant, where it is a common drink for breaking the daily fast 1. Its base syrup carries a separate religious use outside that context: some Bene Israel and Baghdadi Jewish communities used dibis in place of sugar in their Passover haroset, the sweet paste eaten at the seder, since sugar was historically an expensive import in the region while dates and grapes were not 2.
Regional variants depart from the plain date-and-rosewater style in different directions: an Iraqi version, shalgham helu, preserves turnips directly in the syrup, while versions made in India are often scented with star anise rather than rosewater alone 2. Some preparations are also finished by smoking the syrup with Arabic incense before serving 1.
- 1Jallaben.wikipedia.org
- 2Jallab — Traditional Syrian Beverage196flavors.com