Southern Africa · Drink
Setoto (Non-Alcoholic Sweet Malted Sorghum Drink)
A velvety, naturally sweet malted sorghum nectar simmered and steeped to release deep caramel, toasted-grain, and toasted-honey notes.
The story
In village communities throughout Lesotho, Setoto is brewed in massive cast-iron pots for family gatherings, weddings, and child-naming celebrations as a wholesome alternative to fermented joala. Unlike alcoholic beers, Setoto relies entirely on precise temperature management to maximize the enzymatic conversion of sprouted sorghum grains into maltose without allowing wild yeasts to ferment. Historically, elder Basotho women gauged the strike water temperature simply by dipping their elbows into the copper vats before stirring in the sprouted malt flour.
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