Mebos

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Mebos
Mebos sweets - August 2025.png
Mebos sweets at the 2025 Wikimania Conference in Nairobi, Kenya
Place of origin South Africa

Mebos is a South African food made from dried apricots seasoned with sugar or salt.

The Khoekhoe traditionally prepared fruit by cutting them into pieces and cooking without water into a thick syrup. The syrup was dried in the sun for a few days on a flat rock, and then sliced into sections. [1]

Later, during the colonial era, the Dutch East India Company brought apricots from Europe. [2] The local apricot trees were highly productive, but produced short-lasting fruit, and these were then preserved with brandy or salt. [1]

The word 'mebos' derives either from the Japanese 'umeboshi', sun-dried ume, a fruit closely related to apricots, [1] the Malay word "membas", meaning to marinate or preserve, [3] or the Arabic "mush mush", for apricot. [4]

Brought to the Dutch Cape Colony by slaves from South East Asia, the earliest references to mebos were medical, but later it became known as a treat. The English author and translator Lady Duff-Gordon was described as having little love for Cape cuisine, but wrote about buying "Some 'confyt'; apricots salted and then sugared, called ‘mebos’ – delicious!" [1]

South African author Olive Schreiner wrote in The Story of an African Farm about sending a character to "Go and buy sixpence of meiboss (sic) from the Malay round the corner." [1]

Later, mebos were spread further into South Africa by the Voortrekkers, and it is mentioned in a Boer folk song: "Tante Mina kook, o sy kook die mebos stroop, Uit die bai’lekker app’kose daar op die grond" ("Aunt Mina cooks, oh she cooks the mebos syrup, from the very tasty apricots there on the ground"). [1]

The word is sometimes used to describe related foods, such as sugary minced fruit squares or dried fruit rolls. [4]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Trapido, Anna (23 July 2021). "A Sticky Story: The journey of mebos". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 7 August 2025.
  2. FinGlobal (17 January 2025). "Apricot Mebos: A sweet taste of South African nostalgia". FinGlobal. Retrieved 7 August 2025.
  3. Kyle_StorehubIO (27 March 2025). "What is Mebos? A Guide to This Unique South African Treat". Teddys. Retrieved 7 August 2025.
  4. 1 2 "Mebos - African Food Network". 20 June 2022. Retrieved 7 August 2025.