Whence
Drink

Where does Mursik (smoky fermented milk) come from?

Mursik comes from the Kalenjin people of Kenya's Rift Valley highlands. It is cow's or goat's milk left to ferment for days in a gourd lined with charcoal from particular trees, which gives it a smoky taste and a bluish tint.

A gourd lined with charcoal

Mursik is made in a sotet, a calabash gourd. Women clean it and coat the inside with charcoal from the smouldering branches of certain trees, such as the itet, or peanut butter cassia. The charcoal seals the gourd's pores, its smoke helps stop spoiling while the milk sours naturally, and it adds the smoky flavour and bluish colour. Milk, today usually boiled and cooled first, is poured in and the gourd is capped. It ferments for at least three to five days and keeps for up to a month.

For weddings and winners

Mursik is a common drink in the Rift Valley and is now sold in Kenyan towns too. At the koito, the ceremony where two families settle a dowry, it is shared at the end as a sign of agreement and unity. Most of Kenya's athletic heroes are Kalenjin, and when they return from races abroad, crowds raising gourds wait at the airport to give them a sip. The drink is often said to be about 300 years old, first made to keep surplus milk.

Why people think of Ethiopia

Smoking milk vessels is an old practice in both Kenya and Ethiopia. In southern Ethiopia, Borana pastoralists smoke a pear-shaped container called a gorfa with chosen woods, then let fresh milk ferment in it for seven days to three months into ititu. Mursik is the Kalenjin way, with charcoal from Kenyan trees. The peanut butter cassia, long prized for it, is growing rare in the Rift Valley, and one 78-year-old maker told the Daily Nation that far less charcoal goes in now than when she was young.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org ↗ · nation.africa ↗ · kenyanews.go.ke ↗ · ilri.org ↗

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