Tubilad is trending in Tel Aviv. The Twitter hashtag is applied to all nights in the city that start with a shot of Tubi 60, the lemon and herb-flavoured liquor sold only in Israel.
Created in the small coastal city of Haifa, the cloudy drink first appeared in the capital in 2013 and since then, Tel Aviv has been hooked. As well as its own hashtag, Tubi 60 has t-shirts that proclaim the wearer's love for the stuff and a Facebook appreciation society.Advertisement
An English translation of the Tubi 60 label rather unhelpfully notes only that it is a 40 percent-alcohol "made with lemons, herbs, flower with tree extracts, specially designed for a refreshing, uplifting, and pleasurable experience." Bars who serve it refuse to share what they know, and at the time of writing, I haven't been able to get a straight answer out of its creators. We've been emailing back and forth for months.Not that any of this has stopped Tel Avivians from chugging Tubi by the bucketload.I meet Rosthchild in Kuli Alma, his favourite Tel Aviv nightclub and also a place known for championing the Tubi phenomenon by serving not just shots of the stuff, but Tubi and tonic cocktails and even a syrupy Tubi slushy.
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The next day, the liquid appears to have separated, a thick yellow sediment settling at the bottom of the bottle. It's looks highly unappetising but people—myself now included—seem to love it."There's a rumour that it uses extract of the African khat leaf," Rothschild had told me at Kuli Alma, "which kind of rings true for me because I think it has a kind of euphoric effect, similar perhaps to ecstasy."Some even say that a night on Tubi won't result in a hangover, making it even more appealing to the masses who drink it every weeknight here. From my own experience, I can't say that this rings true, but I did feel a different kind of drunk on Tubi. The kind that makes you crave more.READ MORE: Heinz's Ketchup Can't Be Called 'Ketchup' in Israel Anymore
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