Local Drinks

1. Ògì

   Ogi (fermented maize pap)

   Usage

   Maize, sorghum or millet soaked for two or three days, milled, left to sour, then cooked. Drunk thinned down, with àkàrà, at breakfast

   Grammar Note

   Set and wrapped in leaves it takes the separate name ẹ̀kọ. Made from sorghum it is called ògi bàbà, with variation in spelling.

2. Ẹ̀kọ

   Eko (set fermented maize pap)

   Usage

   Ògì boiled until it sets, wrapped in leaves and cooled. Sold alongside àkàrà and moin moin; add hot water and it becomes a drink again

   Grammar Note

   ẹ̀kọ (low-mid) is the food; ẹ̀kọ́ (low-high) means "lesson, education" — ilé ẹ̀kọ́ is a school, not something to eat

3. Ìṣápá

   Isapa (roselle, the base of the red drink)

   Usage

   The roselle hibiscus. Its dried calyxes are boiled into the deep-red cold drink sold at stalls under the northern name zobo; the leaves also go into soups

   Grammar Note

   This word names the plant rather than the drink. To order the drink, the nickname zobo is what people understand.

4. Gàrí

   Garri (cassava granules soaked in water)

   Usage

   Cassava granules floated in cold water, taken with sugar and groundnuts — a cheap snack on a hot day. The same granules in hot water make Ẹ̀bà

   Grammar Note

   Names both the cassava flour and the liquid food made from it with water. Borrowed from Hausa in the north.

5. Ẹlẹ́rìndòdò

   Soft drink / soda

   Usage

   The Yoruba word for bottled or canned fizzy drinks; sódà and mínírà are also used. In shops people usually just name the brand

   Grammar Note

   Notable for being a Yoruba coinage rather than a transcription of English. It is long, so speakers often shorten the exchange to the brand name

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