A Traditional Narcotic Gets New Life as an Energy Drink in Kenya
Old men in East Africa have chewed khat for centuries. A new crop of entrepreneurs is making the drug more palatable to everyone else.
Pulp from freshly blended khat ready to be pressed and extracted.
Photographer: Paul Stremple
When Brian Kiriba arrived back in his native Kenya after spending most of his youth abroad, he discovered his friends were into chewing khat—a mild stimulant East Africans have used for centuries. Kiriba stuffed a fistful into his mouth and hated it. The bitter leaves scratched his palate and cut his tongue, making him question why anyone would skip Nairobi’s clubs to spend their evenings in dingy rooms doing khat. Then the narcotic effect kicked in. “Suddenly, I understood,” he says. “But I knew there had to be a better way to experience that feeling.”
He’d heard of locals brewing a drink from khat, a concoction they called jaba, but it was sold only informally. Thinking there was an untapped market for a higher-quality product, Kiriba started experimenting in his kitchen. He burned out two blenders trying to process the rough leaves before he succeeded in making a decent extract; but it was so potent he and his friends threw up after tasting it. Before long, though, he hit upon a workable combination: diluting the extract with water and adding sugar, fruit juice and hibiscus for flavor.