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Africa’s drinks scene is on the rise – that much was clear to anyone attending the continent’s first international cocktail and spirits festival. Ajabu, which took place in Johannesburg and Cape Town in March. The week-long program of masterclasses, bar takeovers and pop-ups attracted an international lineup of speakers and showcased a new generation of bartenders. Headline acts included Kojo Aidoo from Accra Members Bar. Front backand Richie Barrow from Nairobi hero barwhich uses ingredients like berbere spices and banana to give classic cocktails an East African twist.
The festival’s co-founder, born in Ghana and based in New York, is Colin Asare-Appiah, co-author of black mix, a book that highlights the often unacknowledged role that African American bartenders played in the birth of American cocktail culture. “There are so many stories that have not been told… and now they are coming to the surface,” Asare-Appiah says. “We are seeing an abundance of creativity in Africa; the continent’s time is now.” Africa has seen a rise in the number of black-owned spirits, she says, and in particular craft gins. She highlights the Bayab, which is distilled in KwaZulu Natal with regional botanicals including baobab and marula, and African rose petals (£24.14 for 70cl, masterofmalt.com).
Kenyan Gin Procera It has also been gaining global attention; Its Kenyan co-owners include chef Alan Murungi and Charles Murito, of Google and formerly Warner Bros. The gin is flavored with a variety of juniper unique to the southern hemisphere, giving it subtle notes of pink pepper and lavender. A limited edition, Procera Green Dot Vintage 2023 (£135 for 70cl), was launched last month, distilled with berries, leaves and wood from a single high-altitude tree – combining lush green and floral notes with freshness. Hit of pine and a light smokiness.
Other spirits brands have chosen to pay tribute to the heroes of the African diaspora. Ron Equiano is an African-Caribbean blend named after Olaudah Equiano, an 18th-century African slave and activist who bought his freedom in part by selling rum. “He was one of the first African writers published in the UK and US,” says Equiano co-founder and rum expert Ian Burrell, “and his memoirs were instrumental in achieving the abolition of the Trade Act. Slaves of 1807”.
The rum is a blend of aged rums from Mauritius and Barbados: “The Mauritian component gives the blend its distinctive notes of pepper and medium-sweet spices, especially on the finish,” says Burrell. Equiano’s first vintage expression is an 11-year-old rum called Ominira (£180 for 70cl), which means “freedom” in Yoruba.
Tennessee Whiskey Closest uncle It is named after the world’s first known African-American master distiller, Uncle “Nearest” Green, a former slave who taught Jack Daniels the art of making whiskey. Founded in 2017 by American entrepreneur Fawn Weaver, the company campaigns for greater diversity and inclusion in the drinks business. Its Tennessee whiskeys (from $49 for 75cl) and rye ($59 for 75cl) have also won a number of awards and are now sold in more than 148 countries.
Saint Ogun Rum (70cl, £28.57, masterofmalt.com) tips its hat to the Caribbean and Nigerian heritage of its London-based co-creators, Nic Akinnibosun and Rico Oyejobi. In Nigerian Yoruba culture, an Ogun is a native deity, known for his craftsmanship and invention. As the Yoruba people dispersed throughout the Caribbean, Ogun rituals began to incorporate rum. The liquid itself features rums from five distilleries from Jamaica, Guyana and Barbados, capturing, according to its founders, the “interlocking places and spaces that are the backdrop to it all.”
The number of black-owned wine companies remains small: a Vinpro report puts the percentage of black-owned South African vineyards at less than three percent. Producers like it Tesselaarsdal, owned by Berene Sauls, a Hamilton Russell Vineyards employee and descendant of slaves, remains the exception. Sauls started in 2015 without vineyards, so she currently buys all the grapes from her, but in 2019 she bought and planted 16.6 hectares of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in the Western Cape. “The first harvest of pinot noir will be in 2031,” she says. “It will be made by my son, Darren Sauls, who is currently studying oenology at Elsenburg Agricultural Training Institute, Stellenbosch.”
British-Nigerian entrepreneur Dumi Oburota is best known for his work in music – launching the careers of artists such as Jessie J and Tinie Tempah. But when he had difficulty finding a brand of sparkling wine that spoke to him and his colleagues, he decided to become a winemaker himself. The wine he created was Severan, a traditional method Blanc de Blancs (£38 for 75cl, Severan.es) with roots in Africa and Great Britain. It is grown and vinified in Franschhoek, South Africa, and then sent to the Itasca winery in Hampshire, England, for secondary fermentation (which creates the bubbles), and can be found listed in The Conduit and The Standard in London and in the international fine wine club 67 Pall Mall.
The wine is named after Rome’s first African emperor, Lucius Septimius Severus, who was of Roman and Punic descent and was born in what is now Libya; He spent time in Britain and is believed to have participated in the creation of Hadrian’s Wall. “He was born in Africa, but came to Britain,” says Oburota, “just like Severan.”