The lockdown has forced me to slow down, and over time pickup and implement some of the local knowledge for drink options to help reduce my sugar intake – I take about 5 cups of tea a day, so need to find other ways to compensate.

I have been lucky to also have ample space in which to plant some herbs and spices, I am searching for more if you have and are willing to share

This post is to share what I have managed to get so far and will keep updating – in addition to recipies

1. Kombucha (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kombucha) – fermented tea drink which I leave for 2 weeks to get to the taste that I (and now the rest of the brood) like
   • Preparation:
     • Boil 20l of water with add 50g of tea leaves
     • Leave to cool till cold, filter out the tea leaves, add 0.5kg of sugar per 5 liters of water
     • Add the kombuca mushroom in a dark colored bucket, and put in a cool place without direct sunlight
     • Open once every 3-4 days to let breathe
     • After 2 weeks, remove, keep in white jerrycans in the fridge, serve cold
   • The bucket and handling have to be done very carefully being cold can be an easy transmission mechanism for typhoid, dysentry and other water borne diseases
   • Clean the mushroom, by removing any seemingly dead parts, usually very dark colored and not consistent with the mushroom. It keeps regenerating so these become evident
   • Leaving it longer than 3 weeks leads to more fermentation giving it a more alcholic taste
   • A friend of mine with very low alcohol tolerance got a hangover from a glass of my 2 week old kombucha
   • You can leave it for varying periods of time depending on your taste buds
   • If you do not have a fridge, you can prepare multiple buckets maturing at different times to have consistent supply
2. Tumeric, lemon and ginger mix
   • Preparation: boil 200g of tumeric, 50g ginger in about 5 liters of water, add 4 lemons to taste
   • This one we usually add to kombucha to add a different dimension in taste and flavor
3. Munanansi – this is a new addition with the current low cost of pineapples
   • Preparation (in testing):
     • Boil a 1.5kg pineapple with peels cut into pieces, 50g of tea leaves, 200g of sugar (honey can also be used) and 100g of ginger in 20 liters of water
     • Leave to cool for at least 18 hours which improves the flavor, probably due to the pineapples and ginger settling into the juice
     • Filter and put in the fridge to drink serving cold
   • We are testing using a whole pineapple instead of just the peels so that we can get more juice, rather than the 1 liter we get from just the peels
4. Tamarind juice
   • Preparation:
     • Place tamarind seeds in water and leave overnight
     • Squeeze the covering of the seeds which has loosened, using cheesecloth or another appropriate strainer
     • Add honey to taste
   • This can be drank alone, but is a great addition to kombucha which already has its own flavor
5. Mululuza – commonly used for the treatment of malaria in Buganda
   • Preparation:
     • Fill a pan with leaves and add 5cm of water to cover the leaves then boil for 30min
     • Leave to cool and keep in the fridge
   • Tend to add this to tamarind, munanasi or kombucha which have their own flavors, so adds a sourish dimension to the taste
6. Rosemary – a common addition to tea and meals for flavor, however we have started eating 4-5 leaves per person every morning to start the day
7. Lime basil (known local name kakuba nsiri) – I add these leaves to my hot tea/coffee drink about 4-5 leaves per cup
8. Coming soon: moringa and aloe vera (will update when we start to try these out)

Please share your local herb drink and the procedure for preparing it to help build the knowledge

Some photos showing some examples of the preparation steps above