Mbege facts for kids

Mbege, a traditional Chagga brew

Mbege is a special traditional drink made by the Chagga people in Tanzania, near the famous Kilimanjaro mountain. It's a fermented drink made from bananas. Making mbege takes a lot of hard work and time because most of the steps are done by hand, without modern machines. When you first taste mbege, it's often sweet, but then it has a slightly sour taste afterward.

How Mbege is Made

Making mbege involves several interesting steps:

• First, bananas are mashed up.
• Then, these mashed bananas are cooked in a pot over a fire for about six hours.
• After cooking, the mixture is covered and left outside to ferment for up to seven days. Fermentation is a natural process where tiny living things (like yeast) change the sugars in the bananas into other things, creating the unique flavor.
• Next, the fermented mixture is strained using shredded grass and banana leaves.
• A thick porridge, made from finger millet flour and water, is then added to the strained liquid.
• Finally, a small amount of powder from quinine bark is mixed in. This helps to balance the sweetness from the bananas.
• The drink is then left to sit for another day before it's ready to be enjoyed.

Mbege in the Spotlight

• The traditional way of making mbege was shown on the Travel Channel's TV show, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern.