Literal WARM greetings from Egypt! I have spent some time here in the Egypt and National Museums in Cairo looking into their ancient culture and was hoping to find some information about their distillation techniques and perhaps try some local spirits. I’m sorry to report that I haven’t found much at all, from Cairo down to Aswan! 

First, it is a very “dry” country. Spirits and alcohol in general is almost non-existent. There are some local beer and local wines in Cairo, but not much of a selection at all and it is rare to find them on menus. Blue lotus is a sacred flower here, and I was told a blue lotus wine exists, but could not find it anywhere.

Second, the ancient Egyptians definitely brewed beer and kept large granaries. They had advanced knowledge of herbal medicines and plant extracts. Unfortunately, archaeology hasn’t really given us a great example of an ancient still it seems. I looked for hours in the museums and only saw pots, amphora, glass bottles (from Hellenistic-Roman periods) and that’s about it!

Hieroglyphs of offerings of wine to gods, such as Sobec, appear in many temples. One example attached.