Loomi

[Hassouni]

I'm not sure who calls them Loomi, but in Iraqi Arabic they're called Numi Basra (lime of Basra), and in Iran (where they're also used a lot) they're called Limu Omani (Omani lime). Iraqis and Iranians use them a lot for cooking as well as drinking. You can find them in any Persian store under the latter name and "dried lime" in English (you can buy them online here, among many other places).

The drink, in Iraq known as Chai numi Basra, is made either by steeping the whole limes as you would any other tea, or by crushing the limes to remove the seeds (which make it very bitter). For a smallish teapot I'd say about 2 limes should do. I tend to prefer the crush-and-remove seeds approach. It's very, very nice, with a unique flavor not found in anything else, sour, slightly astringent, and, for lack of a better word, "exotic." It definitely needs sugar to balance the sourness, but this is one of my favorite tisanes.

Incidentally, the Numi Tea company, (full disclosure, started and run by my cousins) was named after this drink. To my knowledge they produce the only bagged version of this, which they call Dry Desert Lime. I use that when I'm feeling lazy, though making it from scratch produces a more complex tea.

[nikkib]

I love numi tea!

[Hassouni]

Family biases aside, I do think they have the best bagged teas. Unfortunately they seem to be phasing out their conventional loose tea in favor of various flavored pu-erhs.

[Hassouni]

Oh I forgot to say that Iraqis typically drink this hot. It is nice iced though.

[threestars]

When I read the thread "loomi" I thought it is some sort of a soup. Never tried this drink but it sounds great and easy to prepare.

[sazji]

Ah, we're talking about the dried limes used so frequently in Iranian cooking? Limoo-ye Omani? I have a giant bag of these things....I had asked a friend going to Iran to bring me some. He brought a kilo. Then my housemate came back from a trip to Iran 2 days later, he brought a kilo too.

[Hassouni]

Yep, that's exactly it.

[sazji]

I made it. Wonderful, even now, when the weather is not exactly hot...

[Hassouni]

Maybe you can convince the tourist industry in Turkey to serve that to clueless visitors instead of that elma çayı garbage....