Food Part Four: Drinks

  My last post about food is about drinks.  One important note about Tanzanians and drinks. They do not like cold drinks.  They believe that drinking cold drinks (or eating cold food for that matter) will give you a cold.   They would think Americas were absolutely crazy to eat cold icecream outside while picking out Christmas trees (which my family has done at Ted Drews in St. Louis). 

                      Ok, so the most common drinks are:

                          Chai (Tea)- Usually drunk with milk and sugar, sometimes masala (mixed spices like cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, ginger, and cardamom) is added for flavor.  Drunk several times a day.

                                                 Mtindi-  A cultured milk drink

                  Of course, there is always water, but often water here is not safe to drink unless boiled, which may be why chai is so popular.
        
    

Coke, Fanta and Sprite are very popular, usually drunk at room temperature from the bottle.  We still use glass bottles here, which are collected and then filled again at the bottling plant here in Arusha.

 

 

 

Many people enjoy coffee... ironically, this is where coffee is grown, and the WORLD'S BEST COFFEE comes from Arusha, but it is all exported.  To buy N'gamba Peaberry, you have to buy it re-imported into the country, so it is a little expensive.  So, most people here just drink Africafe, an instant coffee.  Like I said, ironic.

 

And, of course there is alcoholic beverages, but I won't go there.  That's all for today!