‘Tchoukoutou’, the African beer with a social role that goes beyond the gastronomic

Darwin would have tried it. They say that, on his voyage aboard the Beagle, Charles Darwin threw every exotic animal he found into the pot. Óscar López-Fonseca proposes that we tour the world's kitchens with culinary experiences that, surely, the father of the theory of evolution would have ventured to try on that trip.

North of Benin and Togo, two small African countries located next to each other on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, live the Somba people, an ethnic group known mainly for two things: the peculiar shape of their adobe dwellings called tatas, which look like small rounded castles, and their homemade sorghum beer called tchoukoutou or tchouk. When a few years ago I traveled to this area of the continent and moved to the territory inhabited by the Somba, I admit that my objective was to see those small mud fortresses and spend the night in one of them. I had no news of the tchoukoutou, although soon after arriving I already knew of its existence.

As a welcoming gesture, the man who was going to host me in his tata offered me in a calabash container an opaque liquid with a rather unappetizing appearance that he assured me was “beer” (cerveza in Spanish). A small sip was enough for me to confirm that this drink was not, by any means, the best gastronomic experience of my life. Its cloudy appearance and pinkish color, the lumpy sensation on my lips and, above all, the peculiar acidic taste that flooded my mouth confirmed that, despite its fame in Benin and Togo, the tchoukoutou was not going to be part of my usual diet during that trip.

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Now, as the years go by, I realize that I wasn't fair to this drink. Upon hearing the word beer, I let myself be carried away by my gastronomic prejudices and almost took it for granted that I was going to taste a fresh and light drink. None of that defines tchoukoutou. Sorghum beer — a cereal usually grown in Africa because it adapts well to high temperatures and drought periods — deviates from the canons to which we are accustomed on other continents. The tchoukoutou is also not a rarity in Africa. In other African countries, similar drinks are made with this or other cereals. This is the case of ikigage from Rwanda, the dolo from Burkina Faso or the amgba from Cameroon. Even in Himalayan countries, such as Nepal, there is tongba, a milky-looking beer made with fermented millet and served in a peculiar wooden and brass container, which I already talked about in a previous article. To begin to appreciate the tchoukoutou —which has been industrially produced and bottled in Togo under the Malim brand for a few years now—, you have to know what surrounds it. The first written references to this type of homemade beers date back to the 6th and 7th centuries and came from Arab merchants who praised the peculiar drinks they had found on their travels through the African Sahel. When European colonization arrived, they were still there and, despite the evident expansion throughout Africa of beers brewed in the style introduced by the powers of the old continent (especially by the British in the 19th and 20th centuries), they resist disappearing, although, logically, their consumption is light years away from the volume of those. The tchoukoutou and many of these African beers were intended to be enjoyed, mainly, on market days, at celebrations or during religious rituals, although nowadays it has already been incorporated into everyday leisure, especially among the youngest, because it is cheaper than European-style beers. In addition, its consumption also has its own rite, which is partly lost. To begin with, it was a drink almost exclusively for men, who, before the first sip, poured a few drops of the beer on the ground in order to quench the thirst of loved ones who had already passed away or also to appease evil spirits and ingratiate themselves with benefactors. What remains without major variations is the homemade and rudimentary elaboration of the tchoukoutou which usually falls on women. They leave the grain to soak overnight and, after straining it, spread it on straw mats where it is covered with rags to maintain humidity and germinate. The result is sun-dried and crushed, and the flour obtained is put in hot water for a first fermentation to occur. Subsequently, it is cooked, cooled, and poured into containers where the fermentation ends without the help of added yeasts. You can also read:
The final result, logically, bears little resemblance to European beers, both in appearance and taste (the pH of its notorious acidity is around 3.2) and alcohol content (lower, between 2 and 4.5 degrees). In addition, the tchoukoutou made at home is neither pasteurized nor filtered, so it can only be drunk up to two days after its production, as it spoils easily. Its regular consumers attribute health benefits to it. According to some scientific studies, it is rich in vitamin B and amino acids, and has a high nutritional value, as well as being satiating. Some even speak of supposed energizing powers. With all this, I promise that if I travel again to Benin or Togo I will give tchoukoutou a second chance and I will toast to the Somba.