Cooking · Zimbabwean recipes
Mahewu (Mageu)
A traditional fermented maize drink — lightly sour, slightly fizzy, deeply refreshing in the heat.
Prep
15 min
Cook
30 min
Serves
8
Approx. kcal
~71
Mahewu — known as mageu in South Africa — is a non-alcoholic fermented drink made from leftover sadza, water and a starter (often a few tablespoons of yesterday's drink, or a small amount of sorghum or wheat flour). After a day of fermentation it develops a pleasantly sour, faintly fizzy character with the body of a thin smoothie. It's refreshment, nutrition and probiotic in one.
Ingredients
- 100g maize meal (or 200g leftover cold sadza)
- 1.5 litres water
- 2 tbsp wheat flour, sorghum flour, or millet flour (the 'starter')
- 2 tbsp sugar (optional, to taste)
Method
- If using leftover sadza, break it up roughly into pieces. If starting from maize meal, mix 100g of the meal with 500ml cold water to make a smooth slurry, then whisk into a pot of 1 litre simmering water and cook 5 minutes to make a thin porridge.
- Whichever you started with, let the porridge cool to lukewarm — body temperature, no warmer. This is essential: hot porridge will kill the wild yeasts.
- Stir in the wheat or sorghum flour starter. Whisk vigorously to break up any lumps. Sweeten if desired.
- Transfer to a clean glass jar or earthenware crock. Cover loosely with cloth (to keep flies out but let air in).
- Leave in a warm place — a sunny windowsill or a warm kitchen — for 18-36 hours, depending on temperature. Taste at the 18-hour mark: it should be pleasantly tart, like buttermilk, with a slight effervescence.
- Once ready, strain through a fine sieve into bottles. Refrigerate; serve cold. It will keep 3-4 days, growing more sour over time.
About this dish
Mahewu is an ancient drink across southern Africa, traditionally made as a way to preserve and add value to surplus cornmeal. It is now also sold commercially across the region in cardboard cartons under brand names like Sungold and Maheu, in flavoured varieties (banana, strawberry, plain). The homemade version is leagues better — and is genuinely a probiotic drink in the modern fermented-foods sense.
Sources & further reading
- Calorie estimate: per-ingredient kcal table (USDA-derived), divided by serves. Approximate — varies with portion size and exact ingredients used.
- Cultural context and method are editorial, based on widely-documented Zimbabwean home cooking. Last reviewed 2026-08-20.
Have a family variation that we missed? Email [email protected] — we credit contributors.
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