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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| "Hamas" beer to be marketed |
| 2006-02-22 |
| Like any good entrepreneur, Palestinian beermaker Nadim Khoury knew that adaptation would be key to his brewery's survival under a government led by the Islamists of Hamas. So anticipating the hardliners' rise to power in January's general election, Khoury decided to develop a new product -- a non-alcoholic microbrew brandished with a label that coordinates perfectly with Hamas's trademark color. "I figured why not have a green label so it will match?" said Khoury, who runs the Taybeh Brewing Company, the only brewery in the Palestinian territories. "All customers will notice the green for the Hamas flag." The alcohol-free version of Taybeh beer, with a label inscribed only in Arabic and whose name means "delicious," is to be released this summer and will target the "local market," he said. Non-alcoholic beer is already popular in a number of conservative Gulf Arab countries which officially ban booze sales. The lucrative market potential was highlighted by a deal four years ago which saw Egypt's largest brewer of "near-beer," Al-Ahram Beverages, bought by Heineken for 280 million dollars. Khoury says he will start small with his new beer, maybe only a few hundred bottles at first, but he has big dreams for his brewing factory in the hilltop village of Taybeh, a historically Christian town of about 1,300 people near Ramallah in the West Bank. A sense of homeland pride and the family's ability to invest more than one million dollars spurred Nadim, who was born in Taybeh, to return after two decades in the United States in order to build the brewery shortly after the signing of the Oslo peace accords in 1993. Now in its 11th year of business, Khoury said the brewery sells the equivalent of about 1.2 million pints per year, though its peak output was more than twice that in 2000 prior to the outbreak of the second intifada against Israeli Violence was bad for business, and the intifada brought a wave of harsher regulations in many Palestinian cities. Khoury hasn't been able to sell his beer in the Gaza Strip for years, since militants torched the home of one of his distribution outlets and radical Islamists effectively made selling alcohol impossible throughout the crowded territory. But Khoury hopes attitudes will change with his new non-alcoholic beer. "I don't want to smuggle my beer in Palestine. I believe I have a right to sell mine (in the Gaza Strip)," said Khoury, an unabashed nationalist who touts his beer factory as a boon to the Palestinian people and their economy. "Every time we sell a bottle of beer it goes toward building the state of Palestine," said Khoury. Khoury says his first name Nadim means "your friend who sits at the bar with you, your drinking buddy," and his chief product is Taybeh Golden beer, though he also makes a light version and a dark beer. The Taybeh brews are concocted from four natural ingredients -- malted barley, hops, yeast and pure spring water. Each bottle sells for around one dollar. The gentle, amber-colored Taybeh Golden is sold in parts of Israel, the West Bank, Britain and Germany. However, among secular Muslims in the area who do drink alcohol, not all are devoted fans of its mellow taste. "It's okay. It's good," shrugged one Arab-Israeli taxi driver in Jerusalem, who admitted he hadn't drunk any Taybeh in at least two years. A waiter at a bar in occupied East Jerusalem said: "I prefer Irish whiskey. Jameson." Hamas leaders, who now dominate parliament, have not made clear whether or not they will seek to impose conservative sharia law which would impose a wider ban on alcohol. Khoury remains optimistic. "I think they (Hamas) are very smart, very educated. I believe they will think twice before they do anything to hurt our business." |
| Posted by:Jackal |
| #21 I'd rather have a Ham asandwich with cheese. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-02-22 22:35 |
| #20 I have not read this book, The Empire of Tea, but know the author and have read favorable reviews. Anyone interested in the impact of the transition from beer to tea on England in the nineteenth century should find it worthwhile. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-02-22 17:47 |
| #19 The lucrative market potential was highlighted by a deal four years ago which saw Egypts largest brewer of "near-beer," Al-Ahram Beverages, bought by Heineken for 280 million dollars. Now that goes a long way to explain why Heineken tastes like crap now. |
| Posted by: Cheaderhead 2006-02-22 17:38 |
| #18 I thought Khoury had a restaurant in Long Beach |
| Posted by: BigEd 2006-02-22 16:30 |
| #17 Personally, I would enjoy reading more stories about average guys who want to "beat the Jews" by creating and marketing a nice boring product or providing a useful service. The more of a functioning, capitalist economy the Palestinians have, the more peaceful things are likely to become. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2006-02-22 14:05 |
| #16 Used beer on Hamas. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-02-22 13:56 |
| #15 The beer yeast is chock full of B vitamins. Which kept people healthier when the suppy of red meat was not available. |
| Posted by: BrerRabbit 2006-02-22 12:29 |
| #14 I've just come back from China and while I was there I pondered the fact that tea drinking was ubiquitous, whereas in Europe beer drinking is. Well the reality is that both need water to be boiled, therby killing germs. A lot of Chinese are intolerent? to alcohol "Some patients will experience intense facial flushing after having even small amounts of alcohol. These symptoms are most common in those with an oriental / Asian background. Other side-effects include fluttering of the heart (palpitations, tachycardia), sensation of heat, headache, abdominal discomfort or a drop in blood pressure (hypotension) are related to high blood acetaldehyde levels. Patients with these problems appear to be partially deficient in aldehyde dehydrogenase, resulting in high levels of accumulated acetaldehyde" But there are a lot of areas in China where beer is drunk with meals. While I was there I discvered Harbin, one of the best beers I've tried. The point i want to make is that families in China who served tea and families in Europe who served beer would find that their children did not die of water bourne diseases. With todays water systems being reasonably pure, that cultural advantage may no longer be important. |
| Posted by: tipper 2006-02-22 11:07 |
| #13 alcohol is a diuretic. Beer is the convenient beverage it comes in. Mmmmmmm beer |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-02-22 10:26 |
| #12 Beer was mixed with water to create 'small beer' (in England) which everyone drank. If you read contemporary texts from the 14/17th century, you will find references to schoolboys having small beer for breakfast/lunch/dinner. And yes it was an important source of carbohydrates. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-02-22 09:55 |
| #11 lotp, that's why the most vicious of Islamist attacks are directed at the middle class...the shopkeepers, rubber plantation workers, people commuting to work, teachers, police. They are the true threat to the ideal of the Caliphate, in which there is only one ruler (and appropriate numbers of well-fed, bejewelled henchmen and toadies of course) and an empire of groveling slaves. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-02-22 09:53 |
| #10 Beer is also a diuretic. "You don't drink beer, you borrow it". |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-02-22 09:46 |
| #9 Beer is also a diuretic. I'm not sure it is a net supplier of fluids. Perhaps Dr.Steve can make a House call on this one. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-02-22 09:43 |
| #8 True enough - I took liberties with that one and you're right. But it certainly was not a coincidence that his message found a receptive audience in Switzerland. (full disclosure - one part of my mother's family were Swiss) BTW, for those who might dismiss Braudel because he's also French, this might be of interest: Braudel explains that capitalism - and this is important - rose from the individual to the group, not top down. He traces an incredible path of changing habits, personal practices, slowly emerging markets and how the whole became greater than the sum of its parts. What is unique about this economic revolution is that it was NOT directed according to the dictates of academic theory or the musings of an economic prophet. It rose because it fit with the emerging modern civilization that was beginning in Europe (and would soon conquer the world). One of the things I love about his work is that he shows how this happened and how it led to greater freedom and prosperity. |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-02-22 08:55 |
| #7 Actually, lotp, Calvin was French. Born to an upper middle class family in France, John Calvin (the Latinized form of his birth name, Jean Cauvin)... Calvin's ideas...forced him to flee for his own safety. During the next few years, he sought refuge in various cities, most notably Basel, Switzerland. |
| Posted by: Spot 2006-02-22 08:49 |
| #6 yes, that's true. But Braudel's extensive research into source documents of the time explicitly demonstrates that the beer was seen as a way to preserve much-needed calories from grain, as well. c.f. Structures of Everyday Life: The Limits of the Possible (Civilization and Capitalism : 15th-18th Century) . The 3 volumes of which that is the first is fascinating, a good read with excellent scholarly evidence behind it. Want to know how much of their budget people spent for food in different places and at different times? or what mix of foods were eaten, what types of cloth made up their clothes (and where it came from), how people learned trades ... it's all in there. An old favorite of mine. slipping quietly to the back of the crowd again ... |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-02-22 08:47 |
| #5 The reason beer was drunk was that the alcohol killed bacteria. It was a way to have drinkable fluids. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-02-22 08:41 |
| #4 interesting (or not) sidenote re: beer - for many centuries in many places (including Europe) it was a primary way to save the calories of grain for human use when they couldn't prevent rats from getting into silos and spoil it. IIRC in the lowlands of 16th century Germany, kids would go around drunk because it was what their poor parents could afford. another strange sidenote: the Swiss, who had pastures for dairy goats, didn't rely on grain and looked down on the drunken lowlanders. Calvin was from Switzerland .... ;-) |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-02-22 08:25 |
| #3 prepare for the next step : OSAMA's Single Malt -Black Label (a.k.a gihadi whiskey) I also expect the "Seventy Virgins" Root beer brand to appear soon in the ramallah market |
| Posted by: Elder of Zion 2006-02-22 08:20 |
| #2 Mmmmmmmmmm...non alcoholic beer. Eliminates that annoying buzz. I wonder if the cans explode before you even shake them up? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-02-22 08:11 |
| #1 "I think they (Hamas) are very smart, very educated. I believe they will think twice before they do anything to hurt our business." Oh, my, he is the optimist. Myself, I never underestimate the Palestinian ability to be their own worst enemy, or at least, shoot themselves painfully in their own foot. |
| Posted by: Sgt. Mom 2006-02-22 08:05 |