Tete Drink · Baobab Fruit Juice
Sumo de Malambe (Baobab Juice)
Photo: T.K. Naliaka / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Gram for gram, the powdery pulp inside a baobab pod carries several times more vitamin C than an orange, and the pulp dries naturally inside the hard shell while still on the tree, so it keeps for months.
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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