barfridge
Small fridge, powerful thirst
- Joined
- 14/5/04
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So you work in Zambia, and only earn a few dollars per day. What do you drink after a hard days work? Beer costs about $1.20 each, making it far too expensive.
You need something cheap, dirt cheap, and this is where Chibuku (known as shake shake) comes in. You can pick this up for ZMK3000 a carton (AUD$0.70). This gets you one whole litre of goondness
It's made from fermented maize meal and sorghum, and is packaged into the cartons while the yeast is still active. This means the longer you leave it, the more of the sugars get eaten, and the more alcoholic it becomes. That's why the carton claims a range for the alcohol of 6% plus or minus 0.5%
Pour it into a glass, and it looks ever so slightly pink, with reddish floaty bits (that is the sorghum). It's not the most appetising drink I've ever seen.
It's very slightly carbonated, just like pouring one straight from the fermenter.
The smell is very dry and lactic. It smells of wet grain that has been left out overnight. A pungent odour that takes up residence in your sinus, and refuses to leave.
So, how does it taste?
Sour, like a Berliner Weisse, with the grainy taste of the sorghum. Luckily this carton wasn't too lumpy, so there were no chunks of off porridge to deal with.
Leave it for a bit and it starts to settle, the sediment separating from a milky white liquid.
I couldn't handle drinking enough of it to tell you what the intoxication and headache were like, but I bet they're not too bad, it's a very simple beverage, and shouldn't throw off too many nasty chemicals.
You need something cheap, dirt cheap, and this is where Chibuku (known as shake shake) comes in. You can pick this up for ZMK3000 a carton (AUD$0.70). This gets you one whole litre of goondness
It's made from fermented maize meal and sorghum, and is packaged into the cartons while the yeast is still active. This means the longer you leave it, the more of the sugars get eaten, and the more alcoholic it becomes. That's why the carton claims a range for the alcohol of 6% plus or minus 0.5%
Pour it into a glass, and it looks ever so slightly pink, with reddish floaty bits (that is the sorghum). It's not the most appetising drink I've ever seen.
It's very slightly carbonated, just like pouring one straight from the fermenter.
The smell is very dry and lactic. It smells of wet grain that has been left out overnight. A pungent odour that takes up residence in your sinus, and refuses to leave.
So, how does it taste?
Sour, like a Berliner Weisse, with the grainy taste of the sorghum. Luckily this carton wasn't too lumpy, so there were no chunks of off porridge to deal with.
Leave it for a bit and it starts to settle, the sediment separating from a milky white liquid.
I couldn't handle drinking enough of it to tell you what the intoxication and headache were like, but I bet they're not too bad, it's a very simple beverage, and shouldn't throw off too many nasty chemicals.
