1. Monday, January 6, 2014 www.thenational.ae
The National10
focus
Retro flavour
Namlet. To some, the word evokes
wild, brightly coloured childhood
memories. To others, nothing at all.
Fewpeoplehaveevenseenabottleof
namlet, the Arabian Gulf’s first soft
drink,letalonetastedit.
Itwasonceoneofthemostpopular
drinks in the UAE, but has since fad-
ed into obscurity. Even in the 1970s,
itwasconsideredaluxury,produced
agonisingly only by a “few old men”.
By the 1980s it had all but disap-
peared, available only at exclusive
private affairs. However, the Emirati
restaurant tycoon Hamed Hareb is
on a mission – to single-handedly
raisenamletfromtheashes.
Namlet,believedtobeacorruption
of the word lemonade, was intro-
duced to the region through trade
with India. As trade boomed in the
1920s, so too did the drink. It came
in three flavours – lemon, orange
and rose – in green Codd-neck bot-
tleswithamarbleasastopper.
Mr Hareb says his generation were
thelasttoenjoynamlet.
“We saw this namlet again in our
lives only recently. I am 51 – you’re
talking about 60 or 70 years back
when it was easily available. So I
thought about this drink because I
rememberedsometimeswhenIwas
young I used to get it very rarely with
my brother or my friends. At that
timewewerepoorandcouldnotpay
much money, so we would fight to
buyone.”
Thiswascommonbackthen–chil-
drenwouldhavetoshareabottlenot
only because times were hard, but
because the old-fashioned bottles
wereexpensive.
The predicament of deciding who
drank first spawned a game, and an
alternate title for the drink – Tash
Ma Tash. Bickering children would
guesswhetherthedrinkwouldfoam
or not when the marble cap was
pushed in – with the victor drinking
first.
Mr Hareb first encountered nam-
let at a cafe in Dubai’s Al Nasr Club,
brewed by a sole “old man”, in the
late 1970s, and was immediately in-
fatuated. “From that time it was like
a habit – I said one day, if I reach a
point when I can produce this kind
of drink in Dubai for the UAE, it will
benice.”
His namlet project, however, was
put on the back burner for a long
time. Mr Hareb had a culinary em-
piretobuildfirst.
He lost his father when he was just
nine,andthefamilyinheritedadhow.
However, with the construction of a
bridgelinkingSaudiArabiaandBah-
rain, trade by boat was failing. The
familyconvertedthedhowintoares-
taurantin1983,whichprovedahuge
success,andacrucialfirststepinMr
Hareb’sculinarycareer.
From here, he slowly built his Al
Koufa and Dahleez Services restau-
rantchain.AlKoufawaslaunchedin
1993 with new restaurants opening
every few years to the point where he
now has 14 – including eight herit-
age-themedsignatureoutlets.
“When we opened Al Koufa and
started searching for new ideas,
namletcametomindandwestarted
searching where could we get those
kindsofdrinks.
“ I tried to search for the old man
who worked in Al Nasr Club at that
time but I couldn’t find him. Then I
lookedintothebottlesandwefound
theminIndiaandstartedproducing
three flavours – lemon, orange and
rose.”
From those three original flavours
traditionally available across the
Arabian Gulf, Al Koufa has added
more. “In Dubai, you have to search
for new ideas. Crazy ideas,” he sug-
gests. His company aims to develop
its heritage-themed restaurants,
while incorporating a few modern
twists.
“If you visit any of my restaurants,
you’ll find it has a heritage style; ei-
ther in the decoration or in the food
you will see there is a local touch in
it.” The restaurant even has Emirati
fusion food such as maleh (salted
fish)pizza.
In 2007, Mr Hareb took his namlet
project to the next level and began
producing. His traditional restau-
rantsserveitinlargebottles,costing
Dh18 each, and his catering services
sellupto15,000smallerbottleseach
month. Among his repeat custom-
ers are several prominent sheikhs
who order up to 100 bottles of nam-
letatatimeforspecialoccasions.“If
there is a VIP from Saudi Arabia or
any other part of the Gulf they give it
tothem.”
Al Koufa has registered namlet
with the economic department and
Dubaimunicipality.
“We started small and just pro-
duced it in the restaurant to know
what the taste was and how much
people liked it. Recently, in the last
year we have started producing it in
ourrestaurants.
“Now, with Instagram, it’s like a
habit for people – they want it, so we
aredoingwell.Wehaddifficultywith
somebody making a similar bottle
butitdoesnotlookreal,liketheorig-
inal. It has been bought from Japan
but we are not using it because I like
tokeepittraditionalasitis.Whatwe
haveisverymuchoriginal,it’sfunky,
it’snice.
“Now I am also trying to make sure
the bottle is not forgotten – nowa-
days nobody uses that bottle in the
origin country so we’re trying to buy
a factory there to manufacture it for
us. And to add many flavours to it,
morethantheoriginals.”
These,hesays,includecola,Vimto,
grenadine,grapeandjallab–asyrup
made of grape molasses, dates and
rosewater.“Wetrysometimestoadd
newideastoitbutwe’rerevivingitin
its typical way, with its typical look.
We don’t want to touch or to change
anything.
“It’s easy to get an imitation bottle
but I want to keep a heritage look –
you can feel the heritage when you
drinkthiskindofdrink.
“Preservingheritageaverybigissue
and it’s not only for the UAE. More
than 70 or 100 years back, this drink
was famous and the main drink in
theGulf.Itcamefromtradebetween
theUAE,especiallyDubai,andIndia.
“The soda is very famous in India
and really it came from there. And
it’s simple – water, gas and flavour.
They have it in Kuwait and Bahrain
butnowadaysnobodymanufactures
it there like we do, it’s usually done
very rarely by some old people. We
are now in the process of trying to
supplyQatarandBahraintoo.”
Thus Mr Hareb is gradually fulfill-
ing what was once a fleeting dream
ofreintroducingnamletinawaythat
willneverbeforgotten.
Aside from having “crazy ideas”,
he feels his success to date has been
largelyrootedinlivinginaccordance
tohisreligion.Religionisabouthow
you treat people, not only about ob-
servingprayers,hesays.
“If you do your prayers and treat
people bad, God will not accept
it. So, this is my secret – in all the
growth from one restaurant to 14
restaurants, in all my business, that
reflects how I deal with my staff and
my customers. And I believe that we
are all human beings. If you come to
work or live with me, I have to treat
you well. The staff like it– from 1995
until today, almost 80 per cent of my
staff is the same. Treating people as
human beings, plus trying to find a
healthy environment of team work
and love between each other is the
only reason why my group has con-
sistentlygrownbigger.”
“But the main reason why I suc-
ceed?” he asks. “To tell you frankly,
I am a very cool guy.” By cool, Mr
Hareb means he always keeps his
cool. He once received a call telling
him to hurry to his Al Koufa restau-
rantbecauseithadcaughtfire.
“So I came in the morning - there
were lots of people around, police
andfirefighters.Istoodveryfarfrom
the restaurant near a policeman
and we were talking, laughing and
having jokes. He said, ‘I will ask you
a question - do you know the owner
of this place?’ I said, ‘Yes’. He said,
‘Brother, his place is burning and
he isn’t here’. I told him, ‘No, he is
here’. He said, ‘Where is he?’ I say,
‘Here. Me’. And he said, ‘Your place
is on fire and you are making jokes
withme?’Isaid,‘Whattodo?Filmal
walafilhal’.It’snotburningmyfam-
ilyormychildren,it’smoney.”
Managing 450 to 500 staff daily, he
pointsout,requiresacoolhead.Peo-
plelookatmeandtellmeIlook38or
40, and I say it’s because I am always
smiling.
“At the end of the day we will not
keepanythingfromthislife,whatre-
mainsforusisagoodname.”
ĝĝ halbustani@thenational.ae
AGulftraditiongetsitsfizzback
Theoncepopularsoftdrink,namlet,had all but disappeared when the Emirati restaurant tycoon Hamed Hareb – who remembered it fondly as a
treat from his childhood – decided to try to revive it, complete with its traditonal marble-stopper bottle, writesHarethAlBustani
The restaurant owner, Hamed Hareb. Sarah Dea / The National Mr Hareb is reviving namlet soft drink, trying to keep the new bottles, right, as close as possible to the originals, left. Pawan Singh / The National
This drink was famous
and the main drink in
the Gulf. It came from
trade between the
UAE and India
Hamed Hareb restaurants tycoon