If you’ve ever wandered through the busy streets of Beirut or any Lebanese city, chances are you’ve stopped at a colourful fruit stand and watched someone prepare one of these layered beauties right in front of you. The Lebanese fruit cocktail – known locally as cocktail shikaf, which simply means “fruit chunks cocktail” – is one of those street foods that’s hard to walk past and even harder to forget.
What Is Cocktail Shikaf?
At its core, a cocktail shikaf is freshly cut fruit piled into a cup, topped with a base of blended fresh strawberry or kiwi juice, a generous spoonful of ashta cream, a handful of raw nuts, and a drizzle of honey. Every street vendor has their own version, and the fruits change with the seasons. In winter, expect more citrus. In summer, the cups overflow with tropical and stone fruits — mango, peach, pineapple, and more.
A good cocktail shikaf should have at least five to seven different fruits in it. Think banana, kiwi, mango, avocado, orange, strawberry, apple, pear, pineapple, peach, or apricot – whatever looks best at the market that day.
What Makes It Lebanese
Fruit cocktails exist in just about every culture around the world, but what sets this one apart is the ashta. Ashta is a clotted cream flavoured with rose water, and it’s what gives this dessert its unmistakably Lebanese identity. That rich, slightly floral cream sitting on top of cold, juicy fruit is a combination that’s hard to describe and even harder to beat.
If you can, make your ashta from scratch. The flavour is so much better than anything store-bought. You can substitute whipped cream in a pinch, but it really isn’t the same – the rose water aroma is the whole point.
Lebanese Fruit Cocktail Ingredients
Fruit: Use whatever is in season and looks fresh. For this recipe, we’re using banana, peach, kiwi, apple, mango, pineapple, and strawberries. The strawberries do double duty – some get cut into chunks, and the rest get blended into the juice base that fills the cup.
Ashta cream: This is the heart of the dessert. Rich, creamy, and lightly scented with rose water. Make it from scratch if you can — two tablespoons per serving is all you need, but you’ll want more.
Nuts: Raw walnuts and crushed pistachios add crunch and a lovely contrast to the soft fruit. Don’t skip these – they’re not just garnish, they’re part of the experience.
Honey: A drizzle at the end ties everything together. It adds sweetness without overpowering the natural flavour of the fruit.
Lebanese Fruit Cocktail Recipe Step-by-Step
The beauty of this recipe is how simple it is once everything is prepped.
Start with your fruit. Cut the mango, apple, pineapple, kiwi, banana, peach, and about a third of your strawberries into roughly one-inch chunks. You want them bite-sized but substantial enough to hold their shape in the cup.
For the juice base, blend the remaining strawberries until completely smooth. This becomes the liquid that fills the cup and brings everything together. Don’t add water – the strawberries have more than enough juice on their own.
Finally, fill each serving cup generously with the fruit chunks, then pour the blended strawberry juice over the top until the cup is full. Add two tablespoons of ashta cream, scatter over your walnuts and pistachios, and finish with a drizzle of honey. Serve immediately and serve cold.
How To Serve
The Lebanese fruit cocktail drink is a dessert, a snack, and a refreshment all at once. Serve it straight from the fridge on a warm day, or put it together fresh.
You can enjoy it with some Maakaroun.
Lebanese Fruit Cocktail (Shikaf)
Ingredients
Method
- Cut all five Bananas, five Peaches, five Kiwis, three Apples, two large mangoes, and half pineapple into roughly 1-inch chunks. Also cut about one-third of the 48.6 ounces Strawberries (approximately 450g) into chunks and set aside.
- Add the remaining 48.6 ounces Strawberries (approximately 900g) to a blender and blend until completely smooth. Do not add water – the strawberries have plenty of juice on their own.
- Fill each serving cup generously with the mixed fruit chunks. Pour the blended strawberry juice over the top until the cup is full. Add 10 tablespoons Ashta cream per cup, scatter over half a cup of raw walnuts and half a cup of crushed raw pistachios, and finish with a drizzle of five tablespoons of honey. Serve immediately and cold.
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