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How The Dawa Drink Kenya Came to Be
The Dawa cocktail, invented at Carnivore restaurant in Lang’ata, Nairobi, was inspired by the Brazilian caipirinha, a cocktail made with the cane-sugar spirit cachaça.
Bartenders complained of morning-after headaches from the cachaça and started substituting vodka for it. (Some Brazilians also prefer vodka with their muddled limes and sugar; the resulting drink is a caipivodka.)
Carnivore’s bartenders began testing their new drink on guests; and one of them, who happened to be their landlord, was a fan.
He asked for another, referring to it as his dawa (medicine).
The name stuck and so did the cocktail, which is now found across the whole of East Africa.