Konyagi Tanzania Ingredients & More

Konyagi Tanzania Ingredients/Konyagi Ingredients

If you would like to know what the ingredients of Tanzania Konyagi are, click here.

Bringing It All Together With a Dawa Stick

Well, the secret to making and drinking a Dawa cocktail is in pressing the wedges of lime (in order to bring out the juice) while stirring the contents of your glass as the ice melts.

It’s when all the ingredients come together that you get yourself a delicious Dawa.

What Are Dawa Sticks?

At Carnivore, this pressing and mixing is done with a Dawa stick, a small cocktail muddler that resembles a yellow and green candy cane (but that doesn’t taste of anything), but in your own home, you can replace the Dawa stick with a popsicle stick or spoon (you can also buy Dawa sticks online from Banana Box).

Whatever the case, you get the same results.

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Konyagi Meaning in English

Konyagi is a brand of Tanzanian spirit. It is a popular alcoholic beverage in Tanzania and is known for its strong and distinctive flavor.

To the best of my knowledge, bottled Konyagi was named after, enkonyagi, a delicious(!) banana gin made by the Haya people of northwestern Tanzania. (In case you don’t know, I am Haya…woot woot!!)

Enkonyagi is derived from the word “Cognac“.

My father tells me that in the late sixties (or at least when he was at university and he graduated in 1970), Tanzania Distilleries held a competition to name a new spirit that they’d soon be launching.

The late Mr. Leonidas Muhanika (R.I.P.), our neighbor from across the street in Kamachumu Village in Kagera, submitted the entry Konyagi—the Swahilinized version of enkonyagi—and won.

As they say, the rest is history.

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Dawa Cocktail Tanzania/Zanzibar Dawa Cocktail

In Tanzania, a Dawa cocktail is made a little differently than it is in Kenya.

Most importantly, the spirit used to make a Dawa in Tanzania is Konyagi.

Here’s a video showing you one way to make a Tanzanian Dawa.

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Dawa Cocktail Recipe/Dawa Drink Recipe/Dawa Recipe

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Dawa Cocktail Ingredients

• Vodka
• Honey
• Fresh Lime
• Ice Cubes

How to Make Dawa Drink

1. Pour two tots of vodka into a tumbler glass like this (or any other glass that is roomy).
2. Add a tablespoon of honey. (I like my Dawa sweet!)
3. Add one lime, cut up in wedges.
4. Add ice cubes.
5. And drink.

Wait (you might say)! That doesn’t sound like a drink!

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There you’ve got it.

That’s all you need to know to make a Dawa (though I will admit my Dawas never taste quite the same as those made by Carnivore’s Dr. Dawa—I don’t know what his secret is!)

But that’s enough talking!

It’s time for me to go drink my Dawa now.

Happy Furahi-day (coincidentally, “furahi” means “be happy” in Swahili)!

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I’m feeling thirsty.

No, not that kind of thirst—water can do nothing for me right now. I mean THIR-STY thirsty.

Catch my drift? (It’s Friday, don’t think too hard! 😉 )

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This evening, I’m going to take inspiration from all the honey and lemon I have been handling for my hair and make a Dawa.

What? You don’t know what a Dawa is?

Hmmm…let me tell you a little more then.

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Dawa Cocktail Carnivore

A Dawa (Swahili for ‘medicine’) is a popular Kenyan cocktail made famous by Carnivore (the famous meat eater’s restaurant) and other restaurants owned by The Tamarind Group.

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It’s a simple cocktail that’s easy to make (and quite potent 🙂 ), and most of the ingredients needed to make this cocktail you probably already have in your kitchen.

How about we make a Dawa together?

Ready?

Find the recipe above here.

Biche

How The Dawa Drink Kenya Came to Be

The Dawa cocktail, invented at Carnivore restaurant in Lang’ata, Nairobi, was inspired by the Brazilian caipirinha, a cocktail made with the cane-sugar spirit cachaça. 

Bartenders complained of morning-after headaches from the cachaça and started substituting vodka for it. (Some Brazilians also prefer vodka with their muddled limes and sugar; the resulting drink is a caipivodka.)

Carnivore’s bartenders began testing their new drink on guests; and one of them, who happened to be their landlord, was a fan.

He asked for another, referring to it as his dawa (medicine).

The name stuck and so did the cocktail, which is now found across the whole of East Africa.

Photo Credit: Eater.com, Swahili African Modern,  DailyMail.co.uk