Kenema kola nut
GI Type:
Food
GI Status:
Potential
Right Holder / Association:
n/a
GI Identifier:
SLGI000001
Type of Product:
Beverage
- English
- Français
Characteristics / Features
Kola nuts from south eastern Sierra Leone are known for their flavor and texture, crispy rather than fibrous. For centuries this fruit has been a vital part of daily life and given it important symbolic meaning; it is used in religious practices, as a sexual stimulant and in social customs.
Production and Processing
Cola nitida is grown intercropped with coffee and cacao, smaller plants that like the shade cast by the large kola tree. The fruits are picked twice a year, between May and June and between November and January. After the harvest the fruits are cut open to extract the nuts. One fruit may contain eight to ten nuts, each protected by a yellow skin. To remove it, the nuts are laid out on the ground on a mat, covered with banana or mango leaves, and soaked with water. The skin rots in about a week, making it easy to remove. The nuts are then washed with fresh water before being stored in baskets or sacks lined with fresh mango leaves. The humidity of the leaves is essential to stop the nuts drying out, and thus the nuts can be kept for more than six months and easily transported.
The nuts are then processed to get a beverage. Thanks to a collaboration with Baladin, an Italian artisanal beer and beverage producer, and the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, the drink Cola Baladin was launched on the market in 2012. The drink contains extracts of Kenema kola and natural ingredients.
Around 150 kola producers from the villages of Madina, Gegbwema and Darlu are members of the Kenema Kola-nut Producers Association.
Link with the Territory
Kola nuts are consumed during rites and ceremonies, to welcome guests, as a symbol of friendship, to seal an agreement or to mark a reconciliation. During Ramadan, soft drink producers make a kind of ginger ale with water, ginger, kola, chili and sometimes sugar. They use white kola, because oddly its juice is darker red in color than other types of kola nuts.
Kola is used in traditional medicine; chewing a piece after meals helps digestion, and the caffeine in the fruits helps concentration. It is also used to reduce hunger pangs. The Mandingo and Temne ethnic groups also use the nuts as a brown dye for fabrics, after they have been ground and soaked in water.