“Ya bissap, ya gnamakoudji! 100 francs! 100 francs!”

With the month of Ramadan upon us – Ramadan Mubarak to our Muslim readers – I wanted to feature two popular Ivorian drinks, bissap and gnamakoudji, whose rates of consumptions are bound to increase during this month. I never understood the correlation between the drinks and Ramadan because they always leave me yearning for water.

Bissap is a juice made from dried hibiscus leaves, the leaves are formally known as roselle calyces.  Truth be told, I don’t have the slightest idea on its origins, but it’s pretty popular in West Africa and beyond. The drink can be purchased at various locations: street vendors, depots, restaurants and grocery stores, though from my last trip, I noticed a decline in street vendors; the same situation applies to gnamakoudji.

The actual plant 

 

What it looks like once it's dried 

 

While writing this post, I attempted to have a discussion with my mom about bissap's nutritional value and it’s ability to increase blood production. She nonchalantly dismissed my non-scientific claims, though I really cannot blame her, I don’t recall where I heard about the blood production and Google, with all its infinite wisdom was unable to assist me. At this point, it appears to be something conjured up by my brain due to the color of the drink.  There are different types of bissap recipes, the only thing consistent is the hue of the drink, a color comparable to red wine or cranberry juice.

The initial preparation phase 

The final product 

I would provide you my own recipe, but I tend to wing it by adding a little of this and a tad of that.  These following links should do the trick though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm6F2UDVcZA

http://www.marmiton.org/recettes/recette_jus-de-bissap_51124.aspx

http://www.azurs.net/mercredi/archives/2005/08/pour_faire_un_b.html

Gnamakoudji (jus de gingembre) is Dioula for ginger (gnamakou) juice (ji, actually means water), it’s made from freshly grated ginger and is normally very spicy. I’ve heard of people using prepackaged ginger juice, which is just an abomination, there is no way you can produce the same flavor and burning tongue sensation. Now, not everyone likes their gnamakoudji to scold their mouth, but my experience with Ivorians is they will hurl insults your way if it’s not piquant.

 

It does have a lighter tint, you might even confuse it with lemon juice 

 

And according to les rumeurs d’Abidjan, it’s the Ivorian equivalent of Viagra…

A couple of recipes: 

http://www.marmiton.org/recettes/recette_gnamakoudji-ou-jus-de-gingembre-cote-d-ivoire_35603.aspx

http://cuisine.journaldesfemmes.com/recette/328835-gnamakoudji

http://www.1001cocktails.com/cocktails/3988/recette-cocktail-gnamakoudji.html

If you don’t care to make these drinks from scratch, then hop on a plane, avoid the vendors and get yourself invited to a wedding or just crash it, and drink to your hearts content. 

But you can always take a leap of faith, contact me and we'll wing it together! 

By Ahou Koné