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Tete Drink · Baobab Fruit Juice

Sumo de Malambe (Baobab Juice)

Sumo de Malambe (Baobab Juice) — street food from Tete, Mozambique
Photo: T.K. Naliaka / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Gram for gram, the powdery pulp inside a baobab pod carries more vitamin C than an orange — and in Tete's Changara district, it's mostly women and children who climb and harvest it from the region's giant embondeiro trees.

Dried baobab fruit pulp, known locally as malambe, is broken up and dissolved in water, strained, and sometimes sweetened, producing a pale, tangy drink. It's a rural staple across Tete province, especially around Changara district where the fruit is gathered from wild baobab trees.

Why it's made this way: Tete's dry bushland is thick with baobab trees, and turning the fruit's pulp into a drink gives families in the region a source of vitamin C and income long before the cashew or goat markets pay out.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.