I was in primary school in the 90’s when Pito somehow became such popularly hawked Street drink. Mobil busstop at Oluyole in Ibadan always had at least 3 Pito sellers. Hawking their drinks to school children at closing time.
Of course buying street foods or drinks was outrightly forbidden by mum. She always packed our lunch and only approved of biscuits if we ever needed to buy snacks. I had a classmate Dayo who was huge sucker for Pito, she bought it daily! And was generous to share. *winks*😁.
I’ve learnt that Pito is also called Asana in Ghana and there is also the alcoholic version of this. The Pito i have recreated for this post is non alcoholic and it’s the version I remember that was hawked in the streets.
In Lagos the drinks you are mostly likely to see hawked on the streets are Pito, Adoyo, Zobo, Kunu
Pito is made with grains. Essentially you can use Corn, or Sorghum or Millet or Guinea corn… or a combination of grains. Asana in Ghana is mostly made with corn and white corn is favoured for the production. I decided to use Millet. (At the time of making this post I’ve started another batch from corn). Though the prep time is long, the ingredients for making Pito/Asana are basic! As a matter of fact, once you have the powdered grains in store, you can make Pito anytime you want.
Ingredients
- Guinea Corn (Sorghum)
- Sugar
- Water
Notes
For this batch I used 5 Cups of Guinea Corn ( it became 6½ cups after malting and grinding)
Preparation
Preparing Grains
- Wash grains thoroughly, remove debris and stones.
- Soak the grains in water for 48 – 72 hrs (I soaked for 72hrs)
- Rinse fermented grains and spread out in lined basket or colander. I lined with kitchen paper towel, because it holds moisture.
- Cover with cellophane or a kitchen towel and keep in a warm corner of your kitchen.
- Spritz or sprinkle with water everyday.
- At Day 2 the grains where already sprouted
- At Day 5, the grains were sprouted sufficiently.
- This process of germinating the grains is called Malting
- Spread the sprouted grains out to dry. The weather has been hot, so these were very dry in 4 days, I sunned it for 5 days.
- Blend dried malted grains into coarse powder. You can use your blender or take to a mill.
- Store the powder in an airtight container.
Preparing Syrup
*Pito gets its characteristic dark colour from this syrup.*
- In a clean dry pot, add 2 cups of sugar
- Cook without water on medium heat and allow the sugar melt and caramelise.
- Stir lightly till you get a deep brown colour as indicated in the pictorial.
- Endeavour not to burn your sugar or else it would be bitter, the taste you are trying to achieve is between nutty and toasty.
- Add 2 cup hot water to the caramel syrup to melt it down. If you add cold water, it will crystallize. Turn the heat off and let it cool down.
Washed Guinea corn grains 
Soak for 48-72hrs 
Spread in a lined basket or colander and cover 
Spray or sprinkle water daily 
Day 2 sprouting grains 
Day 5 sprouted grains 
Dried spourted grains 
Grains ground to a coarse powder 
Store in an airtight container 
Boil ground grains for 1 hr 
Make dark caramel 
Liquefy with hot water 
Add caramel liquid to boiled grains and strain
Making Pito
Recipe
- 3 cups malted Guinea corn powder
- 6 litres room temperature water
- 3 cups sugar
- 2.5 cups browned sugar syrup
Procedure
- Add 3 cups of powdered grains to 6 litres of water in a clean pot.
- Boil for 1 hour on medium heat. It has a tendency to froth and spill into the fire, so keep an eye on it. I left a clean wooden ladle in the pot to stop it from frothing over.
- Once boiled for an hour, add browned sugar syrup into the slurry, stir properly and strain.
- Strain using a metal mesh and cheese cloth (the fabric we use to seive Ogi/Akamu/Koko)
- Add 3 cups of sugar (you could use more or less or sweetener of your choice)
- Leave to cool completely and serve with ice.
*Although not traditional ingredients for Pito/Asana, I added cloves and a little ginger to a cup of Pito and I must say it tasted so so good. I recommend it*
Enjoy your Pito
Oh wow! Thank you very much for this training. Your explanation is obvious, coicise, and informative. Africans have beautiful foods and drinks that we need to internationalize. Thank you.
You are most welcome. We have so many export worthy products you are right.
This is the first time I came across how to make pito and I’m sincerely impressed. I love the drink so much so I decided to find out the production process. I think I can try it on my own. Thanks for this beautiful information . God bless the researcher. Africa is beautiful and Nigeria is blessed. Thanks
This is so educative I love it God bless you
Amen. Thank you
Educative! Thank you so much for this. I have a question. What’s the shelf life of pito? And can I make it in large quantity and refrigerate or just store in room temperature then when I need it, I serve with ice?
Thank you. Concerning shelf life, I can only take a guess. I strongly recommend refrigerating I can’t tell what the shelf life at room temperature is give or take 8hrs. Refrigerated under good power conditions, you can refrigerate for 7-14 days. Frozen you can store it for months
Thank you Omolabake for sharing such very informative and educative materials on your site. Your site has become a reliable go to channel for anyone seeking concise and practical recipe for popular african foods. Please, don’t be tired. Keep up the good work. Your contents have the potential to change the lives of people looking for resources to start home businesses to support their struggling families. You are doing well.
Thank you so very much for the kind feedback. It really means a lot