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THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE PALM

Great things often come out of darkness, and more often than not, by accident. Nawa is one of those things.

 

We - two friends and colleagues with a taste for travel and immersive local experiences - were originally based in Kuwait. We traveled at the end of February 2020 for what was supposed to be a week-long trip to Tanzania that quickly got derailed by the spiraling COVID-19 pandemic, and found ourselves in Muscat, Oman, in mid-March. With our home airports closed, nowhere to go and being marooned for a few months, our curiosity got the best of us and we hatched ideas in areas we were interested in to keep our juices flowing.

As we happen to be partners in an essential oil company Sri Lanka [check us out - Liven Essentials], we thought to explore the possibility of extracting oil from date stones due to Oman's abundance of date palms. In our creative attempts to prepare the stones for testing - hint: we used meat tenderizers - we decided to try softening them by roasting... and that's where it got interesting.

As the stones roasted, the house filled with wafting notes of sizzling caramel, melted chocolate and coffee beans. A dark roast and grind later, we were staring at what effectively looked, smelled and felt like freshly ground coffee. Intrigued, we put the grounds to the test in the form of cowboy coffee and a crude cold brew, and were caught off-guard by the fruitiness, complexity and flavors you'd expect from coffee but without any of the harsh side effects one might suffer from [like manic energy bursts, palpitations and stomach upsets]. As it turns out, date stones were historically used as coffee by Bedouins when regular coffee wasn't available. Well, what do you know.

After thoroughly trying different roasting levels and flavor combinations, and subjecting enough friends to taste tests, we let Nawa out into the world as the effortlessly exotic, natural beauty that it is - and a year in, we've come full circle by unveiling a cold-pressed, entirely pure date stone oil that is as difficult and tiresome to craft as it is exquisite. We're always cracking away at new ideas to harness the power of the little date stone and to unlock and share its bounty, so follow us to see what we're up to.

Try something new, yet familiar. Try Nawa.

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ABOUT US

MEET THE TEAM

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KHALED BAHRAMI

Co-Founder / Creative Mastermind

Khaled's inquisitive disposition and appetite for travel, food and the creative arts have led him to all kinds of colorful places and situations. When he isn't reading something, you'll find him silently plotting his next adventure.

JARED WILLIS

Co-Founder / Business Brains

Jared spent the last 15 years advising consulting clients on how to run their businesses, and governments on how to support their entrepreneurs. Now he gets a chance to act on his own advice. He also plays the piano.

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