Zahle Specialty · Anise Spirit
Arak Zahlawi
📷 Closely related photo — Photo: Bapak Alex / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0
Order matters when mixing it: arak goes in first, then water, then ice, because ice added to neat arak makes the anise oils crystallise into a whitish film on the surface.
Grapes are crushed and fermented for three weeks, distilled, then redistilled with aniseed added on the second pass, and the best batches age in clay amphoras before bottling. Zahle's riverside restaurants pour it cut roughly one part arak to two parts water over ice, alongside a spread of mezze.
Why it's made this way: Zahle's riverside cafés along the Berdawni have long been famous for long mezze lunches with arak, and 'Zahlawi' simply means 'from Zahle', a name the town's arak makers use as a mark of origin.
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