Grab a glass of Changaa.
Changaa , when we hear that word we cringe and recall all the deaths earlier this year of people who’ve been sipping the drink or we remember the half blind guys in Jua Kali’s music video Kiasi. Go to Google and do a quick search for it and you get pages with titles such as “Kenya’s deadly drink” from Al Jazeera or “Strange brew: Kenya’s toxic Hooch” from Vocativ. We’ll never forget those news clips of local administration police tipping over barrels of alcohol and exposing a pair of women’s panties or rats attempting the backstroke. Changaa has long had a bad reputation in and outside Kenya but soon the drink may end up on the shelves of your favourite liquor store.
Changaa, which means “kill me quick” enjoys a much more celebrated reputation on television, film and in literature outside Kenya but under a different name. Changaa is quite literally moonshine, the same concoction from the discovery channel series Moonshiners and the movie Lawless starring Shia La Beouf. Long have some of us watched on screen characters drinking out of a mason jar and thought “I’d like to take a shot of that” yet when we hear the word changaa we don’t think twice before we say hell no. Both moonshine and changaa however have been in the news for illegal distilleries causing deaths, this is because before they were brewed without regulation. That’s why we would hear of jet fuel, formaldehyde and methanol being added to different brews to increase the “kick”.
Changaa brewing has been legal under regulation in Kenya for four years but not until recently have brewers gone the legal way into creating and distributing their drinks. It’s legal to distill and distribute changaa as long as you have a distillery license, have the kebs stamp of approval and if your drink is sold in clear glass bottles. Distilleries have popped up all over the country with counties such as Nakuru, Naivasha and Kisumu leading the charge in getting the drink onto shelves and down throats legally. The potency has been reduced to more sensible figures of 35-55 vv down from the abnormally high contents reminiscent of black out inducing drinks such as Everclear and Bacardi 151, famous for being in the B52 shooter which is lit on fire.
Edwin Mbaka an industry professional and quality control manager at Nyati Distillery expressed his views on the subject “I’ve never tasted the stuff but I think it’s about time that people got into the industry as long as it’s brewed to standard of course. Reading about potencies that range from 69% to 73% potencies is worrying. According to a WHO report at least 43% of Kenyans dink low-end liquor. At least with the option of the bottled version they know exactly what their getting for their money as opposed to buying it from their local and drinking stuff that’s used as fuel for camping stoves. I’d take a shot if I got the opportunity to, but someone else will have to take it before me, not taking any chances”.
What about you? Will you grab a bottle of ‘Kill Me Quick’? Give us your thoughts.
