Arak

A rite of the grape harvest in the Christian villages dotting the Lebanon mountain range[…] is the perfectly legal distillation of homemade arak. This smooth, cool, refreshing liquor, tasting of licorice with a soupçon of peppermint, remains the staple drink at Sunday lunch, an eat-till-you-drop extravaganza of small meze dishes.

In Lebanon they have arak, in Turkey raki, and they even make something similar in Saudi Arabia. This is not so surprising as the Arabs were probably the first people to distil alcohol; alcohol is an Arabic word. “Arak” means “sweat” in Arabic, and describes the distillation process rather than what happens when you drink too much.

They use perfume freely, paint their eyes with kohl, and are constantly polishing their teeth with twigs of green arak-wood.