Family owned, family operated, and family run.
The story of The Oriental Star can be traced back to the 1930s Bethlehem, Palestine, where the Sahuri family had a successful distillery.
From the early days the Sahuri family knew their distillery and bottles had to have an impactful and eye catching visual identity, and this is what they did. Their sleek bottle stickers also proudly read “Produce of Palestine” and “Distilled and Bottled by Sahuri and Handal Co. – Bethlehem.” Through our website you will be able to go over the various Sahuri bottle stickers that we were able to dig up from our family archives.
The Oriental Star’s entire market after 1948 was limited to the West Bank, Ramallah, Jerusalem and Bethlehem. When the West Bank was annexed by the Israeli Occupation all the market shares for local breweries and distilleries were lost.
The first product of the Sahuri distillery in Jordan was mainly Arak. Wine production started 15 years later, and according to one of the Sahuri children it was the best tasting port wine.
The Oriental Star also started making brandy –when there wasn’t any locally produced brandy in the Middle East. This however did not stop the Sahuri’s from producing Arak.
The arrival of The Nakbeh in 1948 affected everything and everyone. However, the idea of starting a distillery in Jordan was brewing in the minds of the Sahuris since the mid-1940s. A year following The Nakbeh Yousef started overseeing the building of the distillery in Jordan.
It wasn’t an easy transition but it had to be done. The Sahuri family slept in tents as workers erected the factory’s main façade, the corridors and the main offices. Little by little the Sahuri’s far from home distillery in Jordan started turning a solid profit early on in the 1950s.