taliwri ellizebet tammee

[Hyun Orth]

Asal Aswed - in Arabic black honey - is a sweet thick syrup which is a permanent feature in Egyptian kitchens. In traditional breakfast it is often consumed with feteer, the multilayered pastry made with ghee.

Some put the molasses first and cover it with tehina, and each piece of bread or feeter, removes some of the lighter tahini liquid to reveal some of the darker, thicker molasses underneath.

Some pour the tahina first, then add the black honey on top. The Tahini travels up the sides of the bowl trying to cover the honey. Some just mix both creating a stripped mix color of pure goodness.

Extracted from sugar cane, the black honey carries all the sweetness of the original tall juicy bamboo like plants. Sugar cane is grown in Upper Egypt, and the town of Naga Hammadi is renowned for its high quality sugar cane products that until this day are produced in traditional family run factories.

It is hard to believe that the thick black molasses originates from sugarcane plants. It takes tons and tons of raw canes to create a just one ton of molasses. This is why asal aswed needs to be made in a small factory setting.

These small scale factories operated using machinery that is almost 100 years old, originally installed as the time of the British rule in Egypt. The process of extraction requires a juicer to squeeze all the liquid from the canes.

The liquid then requires two more rounds of processing. The second round of heating removes more sucrose from the syrup, and further thickens and darkens it. The third round of heating caramelizes the sugars resulting in its very dark color and thick viscosity.

The factory packages the asal aswed ready for sale in the market in whole sale and small packaging. This traditional product has a high demand because its flavour is unlike the industrial molasses found in supermarkets.

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