May 29: Vimto
We tried Vimto for the first time today. If you haven't spent Ramadan in an Arab country, Vimto is a British soft drink that became popular in Ramadan as a drink to enjoy at Iftar (breaking of the fast after sunset). I've been informed that Vimto somehow became synonymous with Ramadan, and is as far as I can tell, only available during Ramadan. It's a dark reddish/pinkish drink that's supposed to taste like a cocktail of berries with some spices.
Why Vimto became synonymous with Ramadan is beyond me, so I did some reading. Apparently, the British gave a Saudi company the rights to produce and distribute Vimto. Because it was a very sugary beverage, it became popular during Ramadan to restore some energy after the fast. In fact, the Saudi Vimto apparently has more sugar than the British version. With the magic of modern marketing, Vimto spread from Saudi Arabia to throughout the Arab World as a Ramadan drink. When it's all said and done, it seems odd that a British soft drink became THE drink for Arabs during their holy month, but it also is pretty weird that the day to commemorate Jesus' resurrection is known by anthropomorphic bunnies that lay chocolate eggs. Or that Jesus' birthday, a Palestinian Jew, is synonymous with a guy who lives at the North Pole and drinks Coca-Cola.
I decided to pick up a bottle after hearing once about it a year or so ago, and seeing a shelf in my local Haboub grocer devoted entirely to Vimto. At only 1.80 JD/bottle I thought, why not, and picked up a bottle. The cashier said something like "Ah, btishrab Vimto? (woah, you drink Vimto?)" in a surprised tone. I figured it could mean one of several things.
"Hey, it's cool to see people from other countries trying a part of our culture during Ramadan!" or,
"Whoa, I love this stuff! Glad you like it too!" or, more likely,
"This obvious foreigner has NO IDEA what he just bought."
The bottle looks like this:
Why Vimto became synonymous with Ramadan is beyond me, so I did some reading. Apparently, the British gave a Saudi company the rights to produce and distribute Vimto. Because it was a very sugary beverage, it became popular during Ramadan to restore some energy after the fast. In fact, the Saudi Vimto apparently has more sugar than the British version. With the magic of modern marketing, Vimto spread from Saudi Arabia to throughout the Arab World as a Ramadan drink. When it's all said and done, it seems odd that a British soft drink became THE drink for Arabs during their holy month, but it also is pretty weird that the day to commemorate Jesus' resurrection is known by anthropomorphic bunnies that lay chocolate eggs. Or that Jesus' birthday, a Palestinian Jew, is synonymous with a guy who lives at the North Pole and drinks Coca-Cola.
I decided to pick up a bottle after hearing once about it a year or so ago, and seeing a shelf in my local Haboub grocer devoted entirely to Vimto. At only 1.80 JD/bottle I thought, why not, and picked up a bottle. The cashier said something like "Ah, btishrab Vimto? (woah, you drink Vimto?)" in a surprised tone. I figured it could mean one of several things.
"Hey, it's cool to see people from other countries trying a part of our culture during Ramadan!" or,
"Whoa, I love this stuff! Glad you like it too!" or, more likely,
"This obvious foreigner has NO IDEA what he just bought."
The bottle looks like this:
So I took it home, cracked it open, and it turns out it's a thick syrup that's meant to be diluted in water. It's alright, but not my favorite. It tastes like a fruitier version of a Jordanian drink called Jallab. It also kind of tastes like strawberry Fanta in America, if Strawberry Fanta was a diluted concentrated syrup instead of a bubbly canned liquid.
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