Ogogoro

Ingredients

Raw material

• 20 litresfresh palm sap, tapped from raffia palm (Raphia hookeri) or oil palm
• nothing else – no sugar, no yeast; the wild yeasts on the palm do the work

Equipment used by Niger Delta distillers

• a drum still or oil drum with a clay-sealed lid
• a copper or bamboo lyne arm
• a coil of pipe run through a trough of river water as a condenser
• firewood

To serve

• 50 mlchilled ogogoro, or 50 ml infused with bitters roots and herbs
• shot glasses
• a plate of pepper soup or roasted groundnuts

Directions

1. A tapper climbs the palm, cuts the inflorescence or fells a raffia palm and bores a hole, and hangs a gourd. Sap runs sweet and cloudy, about 4–5 litres a day per tree, and is collected morning and evening.
2. The sap begins fermenting the moment it leaves the tree. Within hours the wild yeasts and lactic bacteria on the palm turn it into palm wine at 2–4% alcohol; after 2–3 days it is sour and fizzy and reaches 5–8%.
3. The fermented wine is poured into the drum still and sealed at the lid with clay so no vapour escapes.
4. A wood fire is lit under the drum and held at a bare simmer. Running it too hot pushes water and off-flavours across; experienced distillers judge the rate by the drip.
5. The vapour travels through the pipe coil sitting in flowing river water and condenses back to liquid.
6. The first runnings, the foreshots, are discarded – they carry methanol and acetone and are dangerous. Distillers judge the cut by smell, by the burn on the tongue and by a spoon test set alight.
7. The heart of the run is collected as ogogoro, roughly 40–50% alcohol, clear with a raw, oily, faintly smoky character. The weak tails are set aside and redistilled with the next batch.
8. It is served neat at room temperature or chilled, in small glasses, poured out and knocked back in one; a libation is poured to the ground first at ceremonies. Many drinkers steep it with roots and bark to make herbal bitters.

Technique

• Home distilling is illegal in most countries and unregulated ogogoro has caused mass methanol poisonings in Nigeria. This describes how it is actually produced – do not attempt to distil at home.
• The character comes from the palm and the ferment, not from ageing. Raffia sap gives the fuller, more esteemed spirit; oil palm sap gives a lighter one.
• Ogogoro is central to Delta and Yoruba ritual, poured in libation at naming ceremonies and marriages, which is why it survived a long colonial ban.

Substitutions

• To taste the style without distilling, buy a bottled, certified ogogoro or a Nigerian craft palm spirit; unaged white rum agricole is the closest widely available substitute, being cane-juice rather than molasses based.
• Fresh palm wine itself, drunk within a day of tapping, gives you the raw flavour the spirit is made from.

Variations

• Kai-kai or Sapele water, regional names for the same spirit.
• Ogogoro bitters, steeped with alomo roots, bitter kola and herbs and drunk as a digestif.

History

British colonial law criminalised local distilling to protect imported gin; ogogoro became a nationalist emblem and remains a staple of Delta ceremonies.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ogogoro?

Ogogoro is a wine & spirit from Nigeria: raw local gin distilled from fermented palm sap, drunk neat in shot glasses. British colonial law criminalised local distilling to protect imported gin; ogogoro became a nationalist emblem and remains a staple of Delta ceremonies.

How long does Ogogoro take to make?

Ogogoro takes 2 hr of tapping and tending of preparation and 3 days fermenting, then 6–8 hr of distilling of cooking. The recipe makes about 700 ml of spirit from 20 litres of palm wine. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Ogogoro?

Yes, within limits. To taste the style without distilling, buy a bottled, certified ogogoro or a Nigerian craft palm spirit; unaged white rum agricole is the closest widely available substitute, being cane-juice rather than molasses based. Fresh palm wine itself, drunk within a day of tapping, gives you the raw flavour the spirit is made from.

What is the most important thing to get right in Ogogoro?

Home distilling is illegal in most countries and unregulated ogogoro has caused mass methanol poisonings in Nigeria. This describes how it is actually produced – do not attempt to distil at home.