Carob Molasses

Carob molasses, also called carob syrup, is a thick, dark sweetener made by extracting and concentrating the natural sugars of carob pods, which contain roughly forty eight to fifty six percent sugar by weight. In Egypt and the Levant it is traditionally made by heating crushed carob pods to caramelize their sugars and then boiling the result with added water, and it is served cold as a popular Ramadan beverage sold by street vendors and juice shops. In Lebanon it is commonly mixed with tahini, roughly three parts carob molasses to one part tahini, and eaten as a spread with bread, while in Cyprus a similar syrup made by soaking and boiling dried, milled pods forms the base of a toffee-like sweet called pasteli and is also exported internationally.