Well, you might think that since in this essay I’m going to talk about beer in Mali that I’m going to come down off my soapbox. I’m not. Those of you in the USA who read this, heed my words, be extremely glad and grateful that you live in a country where you can go 5 minutes down the road and get cans of cheap domestic brew or premium micro or something in between, all at reasonable prices and in dozens of varieties. The beer here in Mali only comes in3 varieties: mediocre, awful and ‘Are you sure you want to drink something that was brewed in a city with open sewers?’ Anyway, all joking aside, even though the beer selection here leaves much to be desired for upper-middle-class guys from states with a microbrewer on every block like me, I was and still am impressed by the fact that Mali even HAS a beer selection to write about. Every town with 10,000 or more people that I’ve yet seen here has a bar, even in areas that don’t have many tourists or foreigners. This doesn’t surprise me in the sense that I know that manyh Muslims do not abide by the prohibition against alcohol. However, it does surprise me that native Malians drink beer that costs 500-900 CFA (about $1 to $2) in a country where many people are lucky to make that much money in a day. It seems that for a Malian Muslim to drink is a symbol of wealth, status, and a ‘modern’ outlook, one of many practices that is tolerated or even encouraged in cities but frowned upon in traditional villages. Incidentally, the father of my host family in Samanko works at the town Mosque. I went out to the bar 1 to 2 times a week for the whole time I stayed there, and he never seemed bothered by it even though he was very much a practicing Muslim. It’s just further proof that the encyclopedia article version of ‘Islam’ doesn’t fit the way it is actually practiced.
Okay, enough about culture, time to get down to the BEER! Here are the varieties that I’ve tried so far:
Castel: It comes in a bottle with gold foil that says “The Queen of Beers” on it. IF you accept the premise that Budweiser is the King of Beers, Castel would indeed be the Queen especially since women have an inferior status in this society. It has a very strong malt flavoring to it, and is a decent medium-bodied lager that goes well with salted peanuts. It’s the #1 seller in Mali; however, keep in mind that Mali once fought a war with France and lost.
Flag: The 2nd offering from the brewery in Bamako that produces 5/6ths of the beer that’s sold here. Good idea; put a brewery right smack dab in the middle of the city with the worst air and water quality I’ve ever seen. Anyway, Flag, the official beer sponsor of the 2004 Africa’s Cup soccer tournament, is the Coors Light of Malli: clean an consistent and crisp, but not exciting or flavorful.
Amsterdam Navigator Lager: This brew, which does indeed actually come from Holland, is IMHO the best one on the market in Mali, which I guess is like saying “that was William Shatner’s best performance!” Anyways, this is a good tasty medium-bodied beer that tastes like a cheaper version of the top European lagers. It also comes in 10.6% Extra Force and 14% “One can of this and you’ll forget you’re in Mali” varieties.
Bavaria: Unlike w3hat the name tells you, this one is also a Dutch import. It’s also a good, basic lager which tastes vaguely sweet and sticks to the palate; as the name would indicate it’s like a cheap version of a German lager to b sold in countries where there’s very little competition (if only the Germans had colonized Mali…)
Guinness Export: Now, before you start getting all excited and jumping up an down and shouting “Oh my God, they’ve actually got GUINNESS there,” keep 2 thinks in mind: first, Guinness was just bought out, and the company that bought it cares more about profits than about good brewing. Second, my PCV friend Kristen, who should know since she bartended in Scotland for 2 years, told me that there are 38 varieties of Guinness in the world, and that the one sold in the USA isn’t even as good as the European version. Anyways, Mali apparently gets the “they’re in AFRICA, for God’s sake, they don’t know what Guinness is supposed to taste like” variety. This stuff is dark and rich and tastes like a stout for a few seconds, but it’s not creamy like real Guinness cans, just n 10-ounce bottles. Just goes to show that you can’t trust brand names, especially when you’re outside the country where you usually buy what you like.
Well, those five are the staple beers of Mali. Not bad, these are BEERS after all, but nothing to write home about, unless you’re me and you’re bored! Hehe. I did try a Mexican-style beer with tequila flavoring made in France (???) called Desparado at a Tex-Mex restaurant in Bamako (???). You can get MGD, Corona, Budweiser, Heineken, and Grolsch here, but only in the capitol and at such a premium price that you’re better off abiding by the following principle: “When in Mali, drink what the Malians drink, unless it’s untreated well water!”
P.S. That is it for commercial beers available in Mali, but I will have to add a section to this essay if I go to Boboland, the Christian part of Mali where they brew millet beer and other crazy drinks.
Other random side note: drinks here are sold by the centiliter of CL. A liter is 33.8 ounces. Soda’s and small-size Castel is 30CL, Amsterdam and Bavaria are 50CL, and uber-sized Castel is 60CL. Which is a big rip-off since 30CL is only 10.14 ounces. Lousy metric system…