Tamarind Sherbet

Tamarind is the fruit of a legume tree, native to Africa and grown in hot climates, that carries its pulp and seeds inside a brown pod. The Arabic name, tamr hindi, means Indian date. The sharp sourness comes from the tartaric acid in the pulp. The drink is three things: tamarind, water and sugar. The fruit is soaked until it softens, strained, sweetened, then chilled and poured over ice.

When it is drunk

It is common in Egypt and across the Levant, and its real season is Ramadan. Because it counts as a cooling drink after a day of fasting, demand climbs from late afternoon towards the breaking of the fast, and the sellers’ containers empty around then. Orange-blossom water or rose water is often added for scent, both familiar smells in a Damascene kitchen.

How you meet it

The traditional service comes from an ornate brass urn: the seller carries it on his back, leans forward and pours into a glass. In old Damascus this is the work of a walking seller rather than a fixed shop, and the sherbet sellers entry on this site covers that trade and the route it walks. Juice shops keep it chilled as well.

What the war changed

The economic weight of the war in Syria reached this glass too: demand fell, and some sellers could no longer afford the sugar and began serving it unsweetened. The taste therefore varies from cart to cart. If what you are handed is not sweet, that is not carelessness.

Taking it home

Spice merchants and apothecaries sell tamarind as dry pods, as pressed blocks and as a dark paste in jars. The block and the paste are heavy but do not leak; the pods weigh almost nothing. Do not confuse it with the fizzy tamarindo sold in Mexico or with the tamarind juice used in cocktail mixes — the same fruit, three different products.