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Deep in the juice with Zamalek: Blending Egyptian karkadé tea with Mile End culture

How the Mile End scene of the twenty-tens and Egyptian heritage brewed a drink Montreal today couldn't do without.

J.P. Karwacki

J.P. Karwacki

November 22, 2023- Read time: 7 min
Deep in the juice with Zamalek: Blending Egyptian karkadé tea with Mile End cultureBashar Odeh of Zamalek bottling. | Photograph: Max Bottega

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

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