Golden Arak: Ramallah Rocket Fuel
I have come upon a find of biblical proportions: “Golden Arak”
This bottle of liquor has traveled from the Holy Land of Ramallah, into our nations capital (Washington, DC), into the hands of a dear friend, and into our 2009 New Year’s Eve celebrations.
The taste of rocket fuel is simply masked by that of aniseed and takes on the illusion of ouzo at first glance. Â Do not be mistaken, this is rocket fuel. Â We no longer need to contemplate where the Palestinians have acquired the fuel for their Qasaam rockets; it sits here before me.
The story according to Doug Humphrey, the founder of DIGEX, and director of Joss:
So, I and a friend who is very into wine are looking though a warehouse filled with wine from a bankruptcy – the problem is that the government left all of about a half million bucks of inventory in a warehouse with no heat or cooling for a year plus – as you can imagine, EVERYTHING in there was shot – ruined.
Except, we come across a 20 or so cases of “Golden Arak” which I had no experience with, but he called “Ramallah Rocket Fuel” and stated that heat, cold, nothing could hurt this stuff.  We got it at the auction for a penny a CASE so that’s 1/12th a cent per bottle….  wish there had been more of it!
At 50% alcohol, you can run this in your car, use it as windshield wiper fluid, drink it or whatever – and it will all smell like anise seed as you do it – so from Yasser Arafat’s home town to you…..a Product of the Holy Land! – Doug Humphrey
Happy New Year! Welcome in 2010 with the power of the Holy Land propelling you away from the dreaded year of 2009.
See the Flickr set of more photos of this wonderfully dangerous stuff.
photos by T.bias