Hi kongulu
Nice to see you back again.
This was a fun question! But I'm afraid there's only one clear "top
beer".
THE BEER
Primus is undoubtedly *the* beer in the DRC, including the north east.
It seems to be all over the country, with hardly any competition, and
travellers sometimes describe it as "legendary" or "famous". One
website implies that these beers also get as far as Kisangani -
Amstel, Mutzig, Guinness, Torboking - but I couldn't back that up.
THE BOTTLE
It comes in both one-person and one-litre bottles. The bottles are
valuable since they are not made locally. Red with yellow stars is
probably the colour scheme for any labelling though I've only found
pictures of a bottle cap and two different beer mats, not the label
itself.
THE TASTE
All I could find is that the taste is not displeasing to travellers
used to other beers.
OTHER BEERS
No evidence of other beers in the north east but possible competitors
in the DRC as a whole could be Amstel, Mutzig, Guinness, Torboking,
Skol or Polar Bon.
Now the references:
THE BEER
"..the famous Primus beer seems to make its way into every nook and
cranny of the country."
http://www.cyber-adventures.com/kgzaire.html
"We bought a case of Primus, the local beer (and the only commodity
Zaire never runs out of)"
http://www.kilimanjaro.com/safaris/rafiki/safari3.htm
"..bottle of Primus, the most popular beer"
A Reporter At Large (The Ituri Forest) New Yorker, February 6, 1984
http://www.dispatchesfromthevanishingworld.com/pastdispatches/congo/printerzaire.html
From Kinshasa to Kisangani
http://www.weltrekordreise.ch/d_afrie_zaire_schiff.html
DRC and Primus
http://www.outthere.co.za/expeditions/holgate1.html
THE BOTTLE
beer mat
http://www.beercoasters.silesianet.pl/congodemocratic.html
a different beer mat
http://www.traveller.org/cool/africa/
bottle top
http://www.zumbo.ch/caps/countries/be2.html
"Today we ripped off 202 km to reach the town of Isiro so we could
camp behind a hotel there. A bar in the hotel serving the legendary
Primus beer was the big motivator. The bar committee immediately
re-stocked at $36 a case ($16 for a dozen beers and $20 for the
bottles themselves). Zaire cannot manufacture glass bottles so the
bottle is worth more than the beer inside of it."
http://jetcityjimbo.com/awful_wonderful/z8.shtml
single person bottles
http://www.antbear.de/tales/zaire.htm
litre bottles
"Also present at the lake were litre bottles of Primus beer thanks to
a booming illicit trade with Zaire. "
http://www.budongo.org/newsletter2_1.html
THE TASTE
"And it's a pretty good beer too (typically African - strong in a big
bottle)"
scroll down to the comment
http://tolsun.oulu.fi/kbs-bin/directbeer?Nr=497
"Firstly we went to a bar and had a bottle of Primus each. It always
seemed to be served ice cold and I think that it was probably some of
the best beer that I have ever tasted."
http://www.antbear.de/tales/zaire.htm
OTHER BEERS
Amstel, Mützig, Guinness, Torboking
These seem to get as far north as Kisangani
http://www.heinekencorp.nl/heineken/intermain.nsf/(All)/F94109DEC23372E7C1256A1F00495511?OpenDocument
and:
Heineken financial review
http://www.heinekencorp.nl/heineken/intermain.nsf/LookupUniqueId/8A9F7852CF37EF4CC12569F200381527/$file/jvl%20eng%20part%203.pdf
Polar Bon?
http://www.beercoasters.silesianet.pl/congodemocratic.html
Amstel?
"They also sell the local Primus beer and Amstel, smuggled from
neighbouring Burundi."
http://www.oneworld.org/ips2/Dec98/11_25_022.html
Skol?
http://www.skolinternational.com/cgi-local/detailcarte.pl?pays_id=12&pays_name=Congo
Also:
historical information on East African beer
http://www.congocookbook.com/c0059.html
Please let me know if I can help further with this - and thanks for an
interesting question.
Regards - Leli
search terms:
DRC Zaire Congo Africa
beer
Primus bottle taste tastes |
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