The pulp of the carob syrup is made to ancient monastery secrets by Sicilian craftsmanship and is a natural fructose product, dense, full-bodied and the smell of carob with a hint of toast.

I gargled and swallowed the elixir, and the next morning I was amazed (and thankful) – the potion worked.

Carob, (kibble) has a high sugar content and can be used as a flavouring in drinks, confectionery, cakes and biscuits. Carob seed is used to make a thickener for ice cream as a feed additive for stock. The kibble can also be used to make stock feed.

Especially in the province of Ragusa, carob is made into flour and when combined with a proportion of wheat flour, it is made into pasta and biscuits. Modica is another very beautiful, baroque city, very close to Ragusa and there carob is added to make chocolate products – chocolate manufacturing is a thriving industry with a tradition passed on from the Aztecs to the Spaniards and then to Sicilians (Sicily was controlled by the Spanish from the 13th to 15th centuries).

Carob trees in the province of Ragusa in the south-east of Sicily. This area is abundant in beautiful carob trees, a protected vegetable crop in Sicily. In Italian the word for carob is carruba and the stone walls are characteristic of the area.

The taste is sweet, soft and a slightly bitter after taste. The syrup is known for the natural and it plays an important emollient action on the mucous  membranes of the upper respiratory tract. It can be a good alternative to cough syrup.