~203 cal · 4g protein · 50g carbs · 1g fat (estimated, per serving)
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Pot of cloudy banana beer with reed straws
🇧🇮 Bujumbura
Urwarwa is the banana beer of Burundi, brewed by fermenting the juice of very ripe bananas with roasted sorghum flour. Cloudy, tart, and lightly alcoholic, it is drunk through long reed straws from a communal pot at weddings, reconciliations, and gatherings — a cornerstone of Burundian social life.
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Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
Ingredients
Serves 8 —
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10 very ripe bananas
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1 cup roasted sorghum flour
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6 cups water
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1 bunch dried grass or clean straw (to press)
Instructions
1
Peel the bananas and knead them with the grass to extract the sweet juice, then strain into a pot.
2
Dilute the banana juice with the water in a large fermenting vessel.
3
Stir in the roasted sorghum flour, which carries the wild yeast to start fermentation.
4
Cover and ferment 1–2 days until cloudy and tart, then serve from a communal pot.
Burundian ceremony tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers — know your destination
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Bujumbura. A lakeside city of beans, plantain, and grilled fish.
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Burundi. Great Lakes hills raised on beans, plantain, and ubugali.
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Africa. Fifty-four countries of tagines, stews, and fire-kissed grills.
The story behind this dish is up top — worth a read while the pot works.
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Richard Moore & Kelsey Tucker
Recipes cooked, tested, and researched by the creators of Spin the Globe. How we build our recipes →
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