What Is Boukha? The Tunisian Fig Brandy, Explained

Boukha is fig, distilled. Clear as water, around 40% alcohol, and it smells like a bowl of dried figs from the second the cap comes off. If you have ever been handed a small cold glass of something at the end of a North African Shabbos meal and had no idea what it was, this was probably it.

It is also one of the most-visited bottles on our site that we had never written a word about, so here is the whole story.

Why it exists at all

The Bokobsa family tell it like this. In Tunisia there was almost no wine being made, and a Jewish family that wanted something to drink needed another answer. Figs were what grew. Avraham Bokobsa worked out that you could ferment and distil them, and by around 1880 the family was making it properly at their distillery in La Soukra, outside Tunis.

His son Jacques went to Normandy to learn to distil the French way and brought the technique home. The sixth generation of the family now runs the business from France, which is where our bottles are made; the original Tunisian distillery still runs for the local market. The name is Judeo-Arabic and means, roughly, alcohol vapour - which tells you the people naming it were more interested in the still than in marketing.

What it actually tastes like

Dried Mediterranean fig first, with almond blossom and honeyed raisin behind it. Here is the part that surprises people: it is dry. The fruit sugar ferments away into alcohol, so what is left is the fig's perfume without the sweetness. If you are expecting a fig liqueur you will be caught off guard.

Serve it cold, neat, in a small glass, at the end of a meal. It does not need ice, it does not need mixing, and it does not really want to be in a cocktail - though a splash in sparkling wine is a genuinely good Rosh Hashanah move given what figs mean at that table.

Boukha Bokobsa Fig Brandy is $32.99 for the full litre, and it is tagged kosher for Passover, which is a large part of why it turns up on so many seder tables.

Boukha is not arak, and the difference is the whole point

Both are clear. Both come from the same corner of the world. Both get poured at the end of a meal. They are not the same drink.

	Made from	Tastes of	Clouds with water?
Boukha	Figs	Dried fig, almond, raisin	No
Arak	Grapes, then aniseed	Star anise, licorice	Yes - turns milky white
Fig arak	Grapes, aniseed and fig	Both at once	Yes

That milky white change when arak meets water is the aniseed oils dropping out of solution. Boukha has no aniseed in it, so it stays clear no matter what you add. If you want the full picture on the anise side, we have the complete guide to arak and a shorter what-is-arak explainer.

The bottle that sits between the two is Zachlawi Fig Arak at $36.99 - real fig layered onto the traditional anise base, OU-P certified, and one of the few flavoured araks that stays on the shelf through Pesach. Star anise in front, candied fig and licorice root behind.

What else is nearby

If boukha is your entry point into the clear-spirit end of the shelf, the neighbours worth knowing are Zachlawi Classic Arak at $34.99, Joseph Gold Elite Arak at $23.99 and Askalon Arak at $22.99. The full shelf is in Ouzo & Arak.

If it is the brandy word that brought you here, boukha is an eau-de-vie - a fruit brandy - which puts it in a different family from grape brandy and cognac. Ashkelon VS Brandy at $29.99 is the everyday end of that shelf and Psagot XO Brandy at $249.99 is the top of it. Our guide to VS, VSOP and XO explains what those letters are doing, and the rest lives in Brandy & Cognac.

When to pour it

Rosh Hashanah, obviously - it is fig, at the table where fruit means something. The end of a Shabbos meal, which is its home ground. Purim. Pesach, since it is certified for it. And it is a very good thing to walk into a sukkah holding, which we get into in what to bring to someone else's sukkah.

If you are stocking up for the whole yom tov run, our kosher for Passover spirits guide covers what carries certification through Pesach and what does not.