The creation of the hibiscus juice company Zamalek feels so purely Montreal: Starting on the stovetop of a local cook and DJ’s apartment via a recipe handed down from a mother with transatlantic roots, and becoming an artisanal idea brewed in 2020 between three friends connected by the city’s culture and their own friendship in the Mile End.
Today, its team of Jules Leuba, Damarice de Richoufftz and Bashar Odeh have turned an organic and fair trade recipe for cold infusion Egyptian karkadé tea made simply with hibiscus, turbinado sugar, and spearmint into something that’s gone from 2,000 to as much as 120,000 cans in three years.
Jules Leuba, Damarice de Richoufftz and Bashar Odeh of Zamalek (left), and the drink that started it all (right). | Photograph: Maximilien Bottge & Henry Acteson
There’s definitely something about Montreal and our world, what revolves around Zamalek, that’s very energizing. It feels like we’re surrounded by many people who do many things—entrepreneurs and artists that start their own things—and it’s very thrilling.
True to roots
Named after the Zamalek district of Cairo and the Egyptian soccer team, the drink bridges the idea of heritage with its founders with their own present-day community.
“I think for Jules as an Armenian and my brief meetings with Damarice’s family, the concept of roots is very important within our team,” says Bashar.
“In Arabic culture, especially as a Palestinian, forgetting your roots is a big no-no. My father, on my first trip to start school in Canada, heavily emphasized the importance of not forgetting where your tree started its roots—which for me was in Egypt, Palestine and Jordan—and I think that’s what drives a lot of the value-based decision-making within Zamalek.”
A young Bashar in Egypt, sometime in the 90s. | Photograph: Courtesy Zamalek
Jules' family in Cairo around the 80s. | Courtesy: Zamalek
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