Laziza means “delicious” in Arabic. Despite alcohol bans in many Middle Eastern countries, beer has long been popular in Lebanon as a holiday or beach drink. George Gellad founded Laziza in 1931, the first brewery in the Middle East. The blonde beer became the most popular in Lebanon, until the brewery was damaged during the civil war and ceased production in 1990. In 1999, Georges Khazam, grandson of the company’s founder, resumed marketing Laziza beer, as well as its non-alcoholic version. Both drinks were bottled by Bavaria in the Netherlands. After a bitter price battle with the Almaza brewery in the early 2000s, Lazia was acquired by Almaza and the Dutch multinational Heineken in 2003, which ended the company’s beer sales.