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Togwa: Tanzania’s Sweet-Sour Fermented Grain Drink (Recipe and Research)

By Updated 2 min read

Togwa is Tanzania’s lightly fermented maize or millet drink — tangy, thin, refreshing, and packed with probiotics. An important East African weaning food and daily staple with a rich cultural history.

At a glance

Togwa is a Tanzanian sweet-sour fermented drink made by cooking a maize (or sorghum or millet) flour porridge, sweetening it with finger-millet malt and fermenting it for about 24 hours. In studies, the pH fell from about 5.3 to 3.1–3.3 in 24 hours as lactic acid bacteria and yeasts took over and Enterobacteriaceae disappeared. It's drunk as a refreshment and used as a weaning food.

  • Cooked maize porridge sweetened with finger-millet malt, fermented about 24 hours.
  • pH fell from 5.2–5.5 to 3.1–3.3 in 24 hours; Enterobacteriaceae became undetectable.
  • Lactobacillus plantarum, L. brevis, L. fermentum, Pediococcus, Weissella and yeasts ferment it.
  • Germinated flour plus a daily-recycled starter acidified fastest and inhibited pathogens in 24–48 hours.
  • Children given togwa carried fewer diarrhea-causing bacteria in a Tanzanian study.

Ferment profile

Origin
Tanzania
Fermentation
Lactic acid
Main microbes
Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, Levilactobacillus brevis, Limosilactobacillus fermentum, Pediococcus pentosaceus, Weissella confusa; yeasts
Live cultures
Yes
Alcohol
Low (under 2%)

Togwa is a thick, sweet-sour fermented grain drink from Tanzania. In the south of the country it’s typically made from a cooked maize-flour porridge sweetened with finger millet malt – sprouted, dried and ground millet whose enzymes turn starch into sugar – and drunk by working people as a refreshment and given to young children as a weaning food; it’s described as nonalcoholic (Oi & Kitabatake, 2003). Sorghum, millet and mixed maize-sorghum versions are made too. Southern Africa’s maheu and Nigeria’s ogi are close relatives.

What Happens in 24 Hours

Following natural togwa fermentation of sorghum, maize, millet and maize-sorghum porridges, researchers found (Mugula et al., 2003):

  • the pH fell from 5.2–5.5 to 3.1–3.3 within 24 hours;
  • lactic acid bacteria and yeasts multiplied while Enterobacteriaceae – the family that includes E. coli and Salmonella – fell to undetectable levels;
  • the microbes included Lactobacillus plantarum, L. brevis, L. fermentum, Pediococcus pentosaceus, Weissella confusa and yeasts such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Issatchenkia orientalis;
  • lactic acid was the main acid; a little ethanol formed too, increasing with time.

The Malt and the Starter Matter

In Tanzanian experiments with sorghum gruels, adding germinated cereal flour (“power flour”) together with some togwa from a previous batch lowered the pH fastest – to 4 or below within 24 hours, against 5.2 or more in gruel with no starter – and inhibited Bacillus cereus, Campylobacter, toxin-producing E. coli, Salmonella and Shigella within 24–48 hours. The effect was best when the starter was carried over daily (Kingamkono et al., 1994). So use malt flour and, once you have it, a spoonful of your last good batch – not yogurt or kefir.

Togwa and Children

In a Tanzanian village study of 151 healthy children aged 6–60 months, those given togwa (pH 4 or below) once a day for 13 days carried fewer diarrhea-causing bacteria afterwards – 27.6% at the start, about 8% on days 7 and 13 – than at baseline, with a smaller change in children given unfermented porridge (Kingamkono et al., 1999). That’s why properly soured togwa has been studied as a safer weaning food in places where clean water is hard to come by. If you’re feeding a baby, make it fresh, make sure it has really soured, and check with your child’s health professional.

Other fermented maize foods: Ghanaian kenkey and Mexican tejuino. Malawi’s thobwa is a close cousin, made from maize porridge and malt and boiled after souring.

Recipe: Maize Togwa With Finger-Millet Malt

Makes
About 1 litre
Hands-on
30 min
Fermentation
About 24 hours at 25–30°C
Temperature
25–30°C (77–86°F)
Difficulty
Easy

Equipment

  • Saucepan and whisk
  • Thermometer
  • 1.5-litre jar
  • Clean cloth

Ingredients

  • 100 g maize flour (fine cornmeal) (or sorghum or millet flour)
  • 1 litre water (safe drinking water)
  • 30 g finger millet (or sorghum) malt flour (sprouted, dried and ground grain)
  • 2 tbsp togwa from a previous batch (optional, from the second batch on)
  • To taste sugar (optional)

Method

  1. Whisk the maize flour into a little cold water, then into the rest of the water in the pan.
  2. Bring to the boil, stirring, and simmer for 10–15 minutes to a thin porridge.
  3. Cool to about 40°C, whisk in the malt flour and leave 30 minutes – the porridge thins and turns sweet.
  4. Cool to room temperature, stir in the starter if you have one, pour into the clean jar and cover with a cloth.
  5. Ferment at 25–30°C for about 24 hours, until clearly sour.
  6. Stir, sweeten if you like, and drink within a day; refrigerate the rest and keep 2 tablespoons as the next starter.
  7. Discard any batch that grows mold or smells putrid rather than sour.

Frequently asked questions

What is togwa?

A Tanzanian sweet-sour drink made from cooked maize, sorghum or millet porridge sweetened with malted grain flour and fermented for about a day.

Is togwa alcoholic?

It's described as nonalcoholic, but a small amount of ethanol forms during fermentation and increases the longer it's left.

Why add malt to togwa?

Malted (sprouted) grain contains enzymes that turn the porridge's starch into sugar, making it thinner, sweeter and easier to ferment.

Can I use yogurt as a starter?

It isn't traditional. Use malt flour and, from the second batch, a spoonful of your last togwa – that combination soured fastest in studies.

Is togwa good for children?

It's a traditional weaning food in Tanzania, and a study found children given togwa carried fewer diarrhea-causing bacteria. Make it fresh and well soured, and ask your child's health professional first.

How is togwa different from maheu?

They're close relatives – both soured maize porridge drinks – from East and Southern Africa respectively.

Sources

  1. Oi Y, Kitabatake N (2003). Chemical composition of an East African traditional beverage, togwa. J Agric Food Chem 51(24):7024–7028. Link
  2. Mugula JK et al. (2003). Microbiological and fermentation characteristics of togwa, a Tanzanian fermented food. Int J Food Microbiol 80(3):187–199. Link
  3. Kingamkono R et al. (1994). pH and acidity in lactic-fermenting cereal gruels: effects on viability of enteropathogenic microorganisms. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 10(6):664–669. Link
  4. Kingamkono R, Sjögren E, Svanberg U (1999). Enteropathogenic bacteria in faecal swabs of young children fed on lactic acid-fermented cereal gruels. Epidemiol Infect 122(1):23–32. Link
#East and Southern Africa
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