How well do you understand the type of alcohol you are drinking in Kenya?

Alcohol types vary in many aspects. There are broadly three types of alcohol, primary, secondary and tertiary based on group and attachment position of hydroxyl. Ooop! That a bit technical! Anyway, let us make it a bit easy…, so what is hydroxyl is simple terms and where does it attach itself? The hydroxyl group is a functional group consisting of a hydrogen atom covalently bonded to an oxygen atom. Wow! Look like we are not getting it any easier for you, you may be getting a bit tipsy…no…drowsy.

The easier classification of alcohol is on the type based on how they are made, alcohol content and from the raw materials used. In these categories we have the most popular types in Kenya being beer, whiskey, wine, vodka, spirit, cognac, brandy, rum and gin. Look like now we are back to familiar name? But let go back a little to our primary, secondary and tertiary alcohol and how they relate to our more familiar types. A primary alcohol example is methanol and ethanol and has one attachment of the hydroxyl. Secondary alcohol such as butanol and propanol have a two attachment of hydroxyl. You can now make a guess how many attachments tertiary alcohol like tert-butyl alcohol, will have. The other classification of alcohol is made up of one or all of the three basic types. I want you to think of it like primary colors.

With this understanding, let dive into more familiar territories and help you understand what different a vodka from spirit or whiskey from rum.

Kenyan beer alcoholic drink

Wikipedia is telling me the Kenyan national beer is Tusker! That interesting because it just started being manufactured in 1922, what was Kenyan beer before this time? Any right answer? Submit on the comment below. Anyway, what qualify an alcoholic drink to be called a beer? It has to be fermented from malted cereal grain such as barley and have to be carbonated at the point of packaging with an alcohol content of mostly less than 5 % by volume. I guess that easy enough to understand. Apart from tusker, other beer popular in Kenya include Guinness, white cap, Heineken, faxe, kingfisher and summit larger to name a few.

Whiskey

Ooooh I love my whiskey! The smoothness will leave your throat in yearning for the next sip. Whiskey is distilled from fermented grain mash. Type of grain and aging method give different whiskey varieties such as scotch, Finnish, Irish among others. In Kenya most popular whiskey brands include jack Daniel, johnnie walker, Glenfiddich, chivas and singleton among others.

Vodka alcoholic drinks in Kenya

Vodka can be made basically from anything that can be converted to alcohol from fermentation process. However, the most common vodka drinks are made from cereal grains, sugar beet molasses or potatoes. It will usually have an alcohol concentration of 40 % ABV. Most popular vodka drinks in Kenya are Absolut Vodka, Smirnoff, Ciroc, Flirt vodka and Skyy Vodka among others.

Wines

Is it only me who start singing or UB40 line of ‘Red, red wine goes to my head’ whenever I am ordering wine? Wine alcoholic drinks are usually made from fermented fresh fruits such as grapes. The alcohol content by volume ranges from 5.5–16% with average of 11.6%. 4th street, asconi, four cousins, carlo rossi, Lamothe Parrot and Versus are among the most requested wines in Kenya.

Distilled spirit or liquor.

Spirit is a liquor that contain at least 20% alcohol by volume and has no added sugar. I think I got you lost somewhere! Did I mention liquor? What liquor now? Liquor is a beverage made from distilling alcoholic drinks made from fruits, grains or other fermentable ingredients. Distilled spirit has a high alcohol contents and may include whiskey, tequila, vodka, rum, gin and brandy.

What are more alcoholic drinks are Kenyan drinking?

There are other popular traditional drinks like muratina beer, busaa beer and other regional like Konyagi. Kenyans love their bottles and nothing will keep them away from a few cold drinks. Drinking is a social activity and is mostly done as an ‘after work’ activity. It is important to understand the risks of alcoholic drinks. It is also illegal to take alcohol in Kenya if you have not attained the age of 18.

Take your next drink responsibly with the knowledge of what you have been consuming all along!