READ ALSO: Baby Shower Budget Kenya
Table of Contents
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.