• Category: brandy
• Alcohol: 30%
• Origin: Egypt
• Manufacturer: United Distillery Group
• Bought at: Liquor store, Cairo, Egypt

This small bottle contains some kind of brandy, or distilled wine. The alcohol level is lower than regular brandies and it also tastes quite weak, similar to watered down whisky. Despite of this it tastes nice and smooth; it gives a pleasant finish. The most interesting of this drink is the bottle: for some reason the bottle says brand (in English and Arabic) instead of brandy. Also it has a line of text in Greek on it, which appears to mean “old distillation”. 7/10.

• Category: rum
• Alcohol: 32%
• Origin: Egypt
• Manufacturer: United Distillery Group
• Bought at: Liquor store, Cairo, Egypt

Rum Zottos is not as strong as proper rum, and indeed it does taste rather weak, as if it is diluted. Nevertheless it does smell rather spicy, and after a few sips it gets (probably not surprisingly) better. The taste is pretty nice and pleasant, albeit rather shallow. It is nice in cola as well. The label is also very interesting with an image of an exotic looking half naked Caribbean male model. I have also seen a label with a female model. The rum on both bottles is presumably the same. It gets 7/10.

• Category: Vodka
• Alcohol: unknown, presumably about 35%
• Origin: Egypt
• Manufacturer: Salt and Pepper
• Bought at: Liquor store, Cairo, Egypt

I bought this small bottle (250cc) last summer in Egypt. The bottle is very crooked, there are bubbles inside the glass, and the brand name is obviously taken illegally from the well-known Finnish vodka brand. Moreover the content is disgusting and tastes very chemically. Travel guides warn for this stuff because of the risk of methanol poisoning. Fortunately I didn’t turn blind. The only way to drink it is to mix it with a lot of cola. 2/10.