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Soft drinks from Sudan

Hulu-mur and abrehحلو مر

Hulu-mur ("sweet-bitter") is a Sudanese Ramadan drink made from sorghum. Sprouted sorghum malt is stirred into a hot porridge of plain sorghum flour, spiced, and fermented for about a day and a half. The sour batter is baked into thin brown flakes on a hot plate, and the flakes are later soaked in water and sweetened to make the drink.

Fully documentedSoft drinks7.5 days – 9.5 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceA laboratory version of the household method, made from about 2 kg of grain per sorghum landrace (Abdelhalim et al. 2023). The ratio of malt to porridge is not given.
Sorghum grain, for the malt (zurriea)About 2 kgSoaked overnight, sprouted 4–5 days, dried until reddish, ground[abdelhalim2023]
Sorghum flour (ungerminated)Mixed with water 1:1.25 and cooked to a thick porridge[abdelhalim2023]
Water[abdelhalim2023]
SpicesAdded to the dough; they raise its strontium, calcium and iron[mahgoub1999]
SugarThe flakes are soaked in sugared water for the drink[abdelhalim2023]

Total time across the recorded steps: 7.5 days – 9.5 days

Start
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shapes, not to countLactic acid bacteriaYeasts

What changes: Under a wet sack the sorghum sprouts and its starch-splitting enzymes form

Step 1 of 6
Soak and sprout the sorghum
Time
4–6 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts

Output: green malt; 6 days of germination raised riboflavin by 700 % and cut thiamine by 42 %.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

the grain's enzymes form as it sprouts

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Hulu-mur ("sweet-bitter") is a Sudanese Ramadan drink made from sorghum. Sprouted sorghum malt is stirred into a hot porridge of plain sorghum flour, spiced, and fermented for about a day and a half. The sour batter is baked into thin brown flakes on a hot plate, and the flakes are later soaked in water and sweetened to make the drink. Made in 6 steps over 7.5 days – 9.5 days. The longest step, soak and sprout the sorghum, takes 4–6 days (Abdelhalim T.S 2023). Lactic acid bacteria and yeasts does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step4–6 daysReported[abdelhalim2023][mahgoub1999]Soak and sprout the sorghum
Temperature35–37 °CReported[abdelhalim2023]Stir the malt into the hot porridge and ferment

What makes this one different

Unlike kisra, another Sudanese fermented sorghum food, hulu-mur adds sprouted malt and spices to a cooked porridge and is baked into dry flakes that are drunk, not eaten as bread.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Abreh abiad (white abreh)Thin baked flakes of white sorghum flour, macerated in water until soft and then taken with added sugar (Sudan national ICH inventory, entry 17; see the hussuwa-abreh entry).

Safety

A Sudanese survey tested 15 hulu-mur samples made from Feterita sorghum for acrylamide, a chemical that forms when starchy food is heated. One sample, from Shendi state, held 84 µg/kg and the other 14 had none detected. The authors, who also found it in one kisra sample, judged both foods safe to eat.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Dirar (1993), as cited by Abdelhalim et al., dates hulu-mur to almost 600 years ago, as a drink for breaking the Ramadan fast.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [abdelhalim2023] Abdelhalim T.S., Abdalla A.A.A., Sir Elkhatim K.A., Othman M.H., Alkhair T.M.A.M., Almaiman S. et al. 2023, Indigenous Sudanese sorghum-based food, secondary metabolites and antioxidant activities of traditional Sudanese nonalcoholic beverage Hulu-mur, Food Science and Nutrition 11:2654–2662 (section 2.2)paper
  2. [mahgoub1999] Mahgoub S.E.O., Ahmed B.M., Ahmed M.M.O., El Agib E.N.A.A. 1999, Effect of traditional Sudanese processing of kisra bread and hulu-mur drink on their thiamine, riboflavin and mineral contents, Food Chemistry 67:129–133 (abstract)paper
  3. [mariod2016] Mariod A.A., Idris Y.M., Osman N.M., Mohamed M.A., Sukrab A.M., Farag M.Y., Matthaus B. 2016, Three Sudanese sorghum-based fermented foods (kisra, hulu-mur and abreh), comparison of proximate, nutritional value, microbiological load and acrylamide content, Ukrainian Journal of Food Science 4(2):216–228paper
  4. [ali2026] Ali R.F.M., El-Anany A.M. 2026, Enhancing the nutritional value and sensory quality of traditional Saudi kleija through partial substitution of wheat flour with African hulu-mur flakes, Foods 15:3535paper
  5. [s3] National Council for Culture Heritage (Sudan), Sudanese National ICH Inventory, entry 17 Hilo Mur / Abre' (variant and listing)web