We're headed back to Ghana for this one. Some readers may recall I did a previous post about a Ghanaian food product, about their candies, back on April 13, 2016. I purchased these in Washington D.C.'s wonderful Union Market, a complex of stores which sold many international products. Alas, my friend Keith just informed me that the Union Market is essentially finished--all but one of the stores were razed to build apartments, and even the remaining one doesn't look like it's long for the world. Moving on, then, I was able to find a substitute of sorts--Abuja international grocery in Waldorf, Maryland. The soft drink I got was Malta, a non-alcoholic (of course) malt drink (also of course) from the Guinness brewery in Ghana. (For more on the famous Guinness company, refer to my February 3, 2018 post about a Guinness candy.)
The drink malta (it's not a company trade name, but the drink type name) was inspired by a kind of German (alcoholic) beer called malzbier. Malzbier is regular beer which is interrupted during the brewing process, resulting in a weak adult beverage (about 2% alcohol). A Danish brewery, Albani, claims to be the first one to make a non-alcoholic version of malzbier. This new type was made with similar ingredients (water, barley, malt, hops) but was not fermented. By the 1950's more folks were interested in a completely non-alcoholic version of malzbier, and malta became much more widespread, and popular. It's especially enjoyed in Caribbean countries, and parts of Africa, including Chad, Cameroon, and Ghana. Unlike beer, it's not uncommon to add ice to the drink, and sometimes evaporated or condensed milk is mixed in as well. However, the original malzbier is still made in Germany, and in Chile "malta" is their name for the alcoholic schwarzbier. Plus I was amused to see that malta is avidly consumed in the country of Malta. (Which is a rare country-and -edible-having-the-same-name example, to add to eating turkey in Turkey, chili in Chile, etc.) Finally, I wrote about another kind of non-alcoholic, energy/vitamin enriched malt beverage, a Danish kind, in my March 22, 2016 post.
The malta I had came in a 330 milliliter (11.2 ounce) glass bottle, and cost about $2. Its listed ingredients are water, barley, malt, maize, sorghum, sucrose, caramel color, hops, and vitamins (specifically Vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, and B6). The tagline is, "Vitality--Goodness--Energy." I had misgivings going in, as I haven't usually liked the other non-alcoholic, energy, malt beverages I've tried. This one, though, was alright. Not great, but okay, and drinkable. The color was dark brown, like a cola drink. The taste was peculiar--kind of a mix of root beer and soy sauce, which sounds gross, but somehow kind of worked. I wouldn't go out of my way to buy it again, but if I happen to see it for sale, I might get some more.
I'll wrap this up with a few nuggets about Ghana. It produces the second most cocoa beans in the world, trailing only the Ivory Coast. And by surface area, it has the largest human-made artificial lake in the world, Lake Volta (it's third largest judged by volume). As for famous people from Ghana, or with Ghanaian heritage, Kofi Annan was the secretary-general of the U.N. from 1997-2006. Actor Idris Elba ("American Gangster" (2007), "28 Weeks Later" (2007), "Prometheus" (2012), "Star Trek Beyond" (2016), "The Dark Tower" (2017), and in various "Thor" and "Avengers" movies playing the character Heimdall) has Ghanian heritage on his mother's side. Hugh Quarshie is another actor of Ghanaian ancestry. He's probably best known worldwide for roles in "Highlander" (1986), "Nightbreed" (1990), and "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" (1999). Joseph Addai played running back in the NFL from 2006-11, including a starting role on the Indianapolis Colts's Super Bowl 41 winning squad. Ghana has also produced at least 3 boxing title holders--Nana Konadu (super flyweight 1989 and bantamweight 1996), Ike Quartey (welterweight 1994-98), and Joseph Clottey (welterweight 2008-09).
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