Palm wine, Pito, Kunnu, Ogogoro, Burukutu, these are standard examples of locally made Nigerian drinks. The average Nigerian would know at least one of these drinks (ok, so may be I am using the term ‘average’ loosely, but I think you get my point).
In the past decade, Palm wine has gotten quite popular with the millennial Nigerian looking to connect more with the Nigerian culture and sample the drink usually seen in Nigerian movies… at least that was the case for me.
When Studio of Mode published an instagram post about a tasting event for theses drinks, I was ecstatic. Some of the drinks were seriously foreign to me and I couldn’t wait to sample all of them without fear of poisoning. No seriously, have you seen the ‘clean’ conditions of the food and drink items hawked on the streets? Yeah, no thanks.
Studio of Mode made a short video that made me want to go traipsing the jungles of Nigeria to go tap my own fresh palm wine aka palmy. And after watching the video, ‘bush attack’ became a part of my vocabulary…I probably spent too much time in the Raffia room at the exhibition just to watch the ‘bush attack’ scene multiple times. Yup, I am random like that…anything new?
I am not going to twist my head and anyone’s brain by trying to describe the tastes of each drink with big English. I really do not have the right vocabulary to use in describing most of the drinks.
Ogogoro was a first for me and it reminded of a young good quality whisky. I reckon that if enough resources is put in place and some good quality barrels are imported, we can make some pretty good quality whisky in Nigeria too. I was surprised to find myself enjoying the slow sips of the drink.
Burukutu was another new one for me too and I seriously do not see myself drinking it again in the future. It was not deplorable, just not to my taste. Can I describe the taste? Nope…go to the exhibition and find out yourself. I already mentioned that my vocabulary does not have the power.
Palm wine is not an easy drink to describe and I will not even try to attempt breaking down how it tastes like to those that are unaware of it. The first time I drank palm wine was about 8 years ago. I drank it with the excitement of a child finally allowed to play with grown up toys and I am almost spat it out as quickly as a child that suddenly realized that adults simply like to drink rubbish.
It took four years later for me to get into palm wine. I was in Asaba, Delta State for a friend’s engagement party and the thrill of spending time in the ‘east’, for me, meant I had to drink Palm wine just to feel among. Maybe my taste buds had developed a better palate by that time, or it was just a really good batch of palm wine, because we almost missed our flight back to Lagos from the overly relaxed state we were in from drinking a bit too much palm wine.
Oh yeah, I was supposed to describe the taste of palm wine right? Yeah, I don’t think I can do that, I don’t know of other popular drinks to compare it to.
Finally, Pito and Kunnu. As a young kiddo that had no qualms buying food off the streets until my mum found out and promised severe punishments for pulling such a move, Pito was a favorite of mine and Kunnu was the drink I bought when the hawkers didn’t have Pito available. Before the tasting session at Studio of Mode, I had already forgotten how both tasted like. Kunnu Aya tasted a bit like soaked gari and epa (groundnut) water (if you don’t know what garri and epa is, I really can’t describe the taste beyond that)
On a side note,
There would be another tasting session tomorrow at Studio of Mode!
Ooh and check out the lady behind this brilliance
