STRONG, smooth, with notes of melon and a hint of a buttery aftertaste. Leopord Lema’s banana wine may not delight the critics, but it is a hit in northern Tanzania, where it sells for 500 shillings ($0.23) a bottle. It’s cheaper than beer, says Samuel Juma, a security guard, and “brings more energy”. Locals glug their way through 12,000 litres a day.
“I come from a family where we used to brew,” says Mr Lema, his office thick with the sweet, pungent smell of baked bananas. His wine keeps longer than homemade mbege, a traditional banana beer, and is safer than local moonshine, which sometimes contains methanol. He has also devised a pineapple version, using up fruit which quickly rots after the harvest.
Mr Lema is not the first to bottle African booze. In the 1950s Max Heinrich, a German, wrote down the process of making sorghum beer in present-day Zambia; his chibuku (“by the book”) is now churned out by corporate brewers. Fruity firms are bubbling up elsewhere. Palm Nectar, in Nigeria, sells palm...Continue reading
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