Saudi's Favourite Flatbread Just Got Pricier

For decades, ordering a plain tamees in Saudi Arabia meant handing over one riyal – no more, no less. The price was such a constant that it even found its way into a line of local verse: 'If your only worry in life is your daily bread, beans cost two riyals and bread costs one.' That line no longer rings true.

A recent survey found many bakeries across the Kingdom have raised the price of plain tamees to SAR 1.5 or SAR 2. While the increase itself is modest, it makes for the perfect excuse to revisit the story of one of Saudi Arabia's most beloved breads.

Baked in a traditional tanour oven, tamees is a staple of the Saudi table. It's most commonly eaten with foul at breakfast, but it's just as likely to appear alongside lunch or dinner.

Like many of the region's favourite foods, tamees doesn't have one neat origin story. Most accounts trace it back to Central Asia, though exactly how it arrived in the Arabian Peninsula depends on who you ask.

Some say it travelled with generations of Hajj and Umrah pilgrims before spreading throughout the Kingdom. Others, including Madinah's tourism authority, credit Afghan and Bukhari migrants – communities with roots in present-day Uzbekistan – with introducing it to the city, while noting there's no historical record confirming exactly when.

The two accounts aren't necessarily at odds. For centuries, the Hijaz welcomed pilgrims, traders and settlers from across Central and South Asia, and recipes travelled with them. The exact timeline may be hazy, but the bread stayed.

And soon enough, the tamees spread far beyond the western region. Today, it's a familiar sight in bakeries from Riyadh and Jeddah to Taif and Najran, making it one of the Kingdom's most recognisable everyday staples.

As its popularity grew, so did the menu. Bakeries introduced cheese, za'atar and ghee-topped tamees, alongside a crisp "biscuit" version, with prices ranging anywhere from SAR 2 to SAR 10. For many bakeries, those pricier options helped keep the classic plain loaf at SAR 1 for years.

Eventually, though, the maths stopped adding up. Rising gas prices, alongside higher flour, oil and other operating costs, meant many bakeries could no longer hold the line on the one-riyal loaf. Several bakery owners said they'd kept the classic tamees at SAR 1 for as long as possible because it remained their biggest customer draw.

Even with the new price tag, tamees remains one of Saudi Arabia's everyday essentials. The bread itself hasn't changed – it's still baked in the same tanour ovens and served alongside the same breakfasts – but after decades at SAR 1, one of the Kingdom's most familiar price tags has finally become part of its history.