shewhomust | Selling soos in Jerusalem (Reply)

The favorite drink of people everywhere in the country was called soos. Soos vendors would walk through the streets and alleyways of every city in the east. It was one of the oldest drinks, and historians and writers have commented enthusiastically on its many attributes as a cure-all. Thus, in the words of one Arab historian: "This drink heals every sickness of the chest and every kind of cough, removes phlegm from the throat, cures diseases of the liver and spleen and relieves heartburn. It cleanses the body of all accumulated wastes, improves vision and eliminates headaches."

This same historian also described the origins of the plant used for preparing the soos: "It is a plant whose roots stretch as much as ten meters into the ground, so that it is very difficult to uproot. Its bark is as thick as a man's thigh. The bark has to be peeled off, since snakes use it to rub against. It is then dried and pounded into a thin powder not unlike the residue of barley." There is a special process involved in preparing a drink from this powder before it is ready to be poured into the soos vendor's jug of clay or glass, ornamented with beads and flowers. The vendor would tie it to his back and stomach with a leather strap. Another strap, just above his waist, would hold the tin can for the copper cups into which he pours the drink, which was first properly chilled with a big chunk of ice squeezed into the opening of the jug. In his other hand, the vendor would hold a kettle of water for washing the used cups. When that hand was free, he'd clink two copper plates together as a way of announcing his "wares". The soos vendor would wander through the marketplaces and, if blessed with a pleasant voice, would sing as he walked along. Everyone drank soos: laborers, shopkeepers, hikers and loafers, children and adults, women and men.
The shopkeepers would not pay for their drinks right away. Instead, the soos vendor would draw a chalk line near the doorway of the shop for every drink he served. Every few days he'd tally up the lines and collect. This system was sacrosanct to both the vendor and his customer; to add or erase a line was unthinkable.
Apart from the wandering soos vendor there were the permanent ones as well. These were the owners of the beverage shops, which is where you could buy such old-time favorites as carob water, produced in a manner similar to the soos. The carobs would be pulverized and the powder would then be put in a vat of cold water. Another famous drink was the tamarhindi (tamarind) made of rolls of dates imported from India. The finished product would be held in shiny copper pots. During the British mandate period, the beverage stores on King David Street would sell the sticky ice cream that we Jerusalem children adored. We'd make a special trip to their stores just to taste the cold delight known to us as "chewing-gum ice cream".