Booza


Booza is a Middle Eastern frozen dairy dessert made with mastic and sahlab, giving it its distinguished stretchy and chewy texture—much like dondurma.
It is traditionally made through a process of pounding and stretching in a freezer drum, instead of the more usual churning method used in other ice creams.

Ancient Damascus

In Al-Hamidiyah Souq in the Old City of Damascus, there is an ice cream store named Bakdash that is known throughout the Arab world for its stretchy and chewy ice cream. It is a popular attraction for tourists as well.

Modern usage

A brother and sister team pioneered and created the first packaged version of booza in Australia in 2011. Using local ingredients together with sahlab and mastic, they recreated the traditional form of booza and packaged this in a take-home format available to consumers.
In 2018, a booza scoop-shop named Republic of Booza opened in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, USA by Tamer Rabbani and Michael Sadler.