Banana Maheu

I may have mentioned this before, I have never drank store bought maheu. It is something I can make at home easily so it feels like a waste. I would like to think it is a better option to carbonated drinks if you needed something to drink while out.

A few weeks ago, someone asked me if I had a recipe for fruit flavoured maheu. It is not something that I have ever considered making before. It got me thinking. I believe the manufacturers of store-bought drinks would use some sort of flavouring that is not necessarily from the actual fruit. In some powder form.

My initial idea was to blend fruit and maheu but that would just be some sort of smoothie. Which would not be a bad idea but not what I was looking for. I really wanted to make banana flavoured maheu, we haven’t had fresh bananas in Bermuda most of this year. My only option was dried bananas, store bought.

I decided to make banana flour with them in my blender. Upon doing some research I found out that banana flour is usually made with green bananas and the flour doesn’t smell much like bananas. If you decide to use this recipe I suggest you dry ripe bananas to get as much banana taste as you can.

I only ended up using a little of the banana flour, so will have to use the flour for other things.

The recipe is actually the same as maheu that you make all the time and then add the banana powder together with flour or chimera before fermenting.

Visually, you can not tell if its different from the regular maheu. Leading me to conclude that if it says banana flavoured and is yellow then it means there are dyes included. If you used coloured berries then you would have blue or red coloured maheu. Tastewise, you can tell there are bananas in there, not a strong taste. You could adjust the amount of banana powder that you use to get more or less of the banana taste.

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Banana Maheu

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup maize meal
• 2 tablespoons banana powder
• 1 tablespoon flour
• Sugar to your taste

Instructions

1. Boil 2 cups of water in a saucepan.

2. Blend the maize meal with a 1/4 cup of water.

3. Add the blended maize meal to the simmering water and stir until it starts bubbling. Depending on the type of maize meal you use it may be too thick or too runny. If it is too thick add a little bit of water and whisk. If it is too thin blend some more maize meal and add to the saucepan.
4. Cover pot and let it bubble for 15 minutes.

5. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Add 2-3 cups water and stir in the flour and banana powder. Put in a container where you will allow to ferment. Ferment for 2 – 3 days.

6. Enjoy as is or add some sugar to your taste.