What is the "other" in Africa? What they drinking over der
this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2024
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Never lived there for long, but VERY briefly lived in Gambia for work for a few months a while back. Most people didn't drink but most that did drank palm wine, which I'm assuming would be classified as "other" instead of "wine" here.
I'm trying to figure out what the other is anywhere. My America must be showing, but I can't think what other could be at all
Cider for example?
I guess that would be other. In my head, that gets categorized as a type of beer.
It depends on how they categorized things. People drink all sorts of fermented fruit and vegetable juices that could loosely be labeled "wine" or "cider". There's also a whole bunch of things that could also loosely be called "beer" like shake shake.
Spent a year in the south/south east of Africa, and different variations of fermented maize beer were the most common alcoholic drink among locals.
Thobwa is the Malawian/Zambian version, while umqombothi is the South African one.
Possibly things that are actively fermenting like kumis, kefir, or kombucha
Bless your heart. 🫂
Moonshine. Of the worst kinds, sometimes.
To just name two sources:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2015/4/1/ugandas-ongoing-struggle-with-moonshine
How is moonshine not spirits?
I agree, moonshine should be spirits if its distilled. However, I saw a ..thing from Africa that was effectively a 3 foot long woven basket/funnel thing, you stuffed bananas in it and left it in the sun. the bananas would rot and ferment and what dripped out of the bottom/tip would be somewhat alcoholic from natural yeasts etc.
I wouldnt call that spirits, wine or beer.. dats some "other"
I think I will need to try this for scientific purposes so that I may contribute to this discussion.
I see you need more explicit proof. You'd be surprised what can be used to make alcohol and what is used in some drinks.
In rural Mopani district, Limpopo, a homemade alcoholic drink called lela mhana wena (say goodbye to your mother) is being sold. It consists of sorghum malt, water, sugar, ice cream, some battery acid and brake fluid.
Doesn't define as spirit for me.
I highly recommend you visit rural Africa. Eye-opening in many ways.
But don't drink this dirt-cheap poison!
Fascinating stuff.
"What was repeatedly echoed by the interviewees, is that it is by the grace of God that after consuming Lela Mhana Wena the person will survive".
I'm not sure about Africa specifically. These categories are vague enough that it's kinda hard to say with confidence.
I know fermented milk is popular in Mongolia and central Asia. There's also palm wine, from the sap of palm trees, rice wine like soju, mead and cider.
I really doubt this info. Sake is popular in Japan and would be (or should be) categorized under wine, yet wine is at zero in southeast Asia. So either wine literally means "grape wine" or the data is fucked up.
That's because they put Japan in "Western Pacific Region."
Ah good point
Sidenote: Sake isnt actually popular on Japan, as it's seen as a "old man's drink". Saki sales locally have been dropping for decades. But the popularity of Saki internationally (thank you weebs!) gave it a major boost.
Source: saki weeb.
I'll never understand how it's an "old man's drink". That stuff is the best alcohol I've ever had.
It could be categorized as "other" or "beer". "Wine" usually means grape, and when it isn't grape, it's usually fruit. Obviously, sake and other rice wines are called "rice wine", but if you are going to put them into a broader category, they probably fit better as a "beer". Non-distilled fermented grain
I gotta say, I'm pretty skeptical about how gerrymandered "Western Pacific Region" and "South-East Asian Region" are. They cross each other!
Morroco is included as eastern Mediterranean, but Algeria isn't? (91% of population near coast), Turkiye isn't? Greece isn't?
I'm skeptical that most of SE Asia drinks "spirits". How are they defining spirits, wine, and beer? I would have thought of spirits as being things that were distilled after fermentation, and I don't think that most of common alcoholic beverages in SE Asia are distilled.
You'd be wrong then
Whiskey is an incredibly popular drink in India. It's often mixed down into something lower ABV (mostly water) and it ends up closer to a typical wine's ABV as the consumed product, but it still spirits that arr being bought/sold.
There are several whiskey distillers in my part of California and 3 of them were started by Indian men that like to talk shop.
Weird how wine has fallen behind in the US