Bitter kola powder is easy to buy and easy to get wrong. It is strong, it is genuinely bitter, and half a teaspoon too much will take over a pot. Here is what it is actually used for and how to cook with it without ruining dinner.
The rule before anything else
Start with half a teaspoon. For a family sized pot of soup, half a teaspoon of bitter kola powder is a starting point, not a limit. Stir it in, let it cook for a few minutes, then taste. You can always add. You cannot take it out.
Add it late rather than early. Long boiling pushes the bitterness forward and flattens the sweetness that sits behind it.
What it tastes like in a dish
Sharp and bitter on the front, with a slow sweetness underneath, a bit like liquorice. In a soup it does the job bitter leaf does: it cuts through fat and stops a rich pot from tasting flat.
Six ways people use it
1. In pepper soup
A small amount stirred into the broth in the last ten minutes. It sits well next to the pepper soup spices and it works with goat, catfish and chicken alike. If you want the base recipe first, see our Nigerian pepper soup recipe.
2. In rich soups and stews
Anywhere you have palm oil, meat and stock in the same pot, a pinch of bitter kola gives it an edge. Add it with the last of the seasoning, not at the start.
3. In marinades and rubs
Mix it into a dry rub for grilled meat, the way you would use a bitter spice. It pairs well with the peanut and pepper base of a suya rub. Use a small proportion, no more than a tenth of the mix.
4. In drinks
Stirred into tea, into a bitters style infusion, or into a smoothie where something has to cut the sweetness. Start with a quarter teaspoon in a mug.
5. In baking
In breads, cakes and biscuits where a bitter note is wanted, in the same spirit as cocoa or coffee. Sift it in with the dry ingredients so it distributes.
6. Straight, in warm water
A spoon in hot water is how plenty of people take it, in the same habit as a strong bitter tea.
A simple starting point: bitter kola pepper broth
Not a full recipe, a way in. It takes fifteen minutes and it tells you what the powder tastes like in a real pot.
- 2 cups of good stock, meat or fish
- 1 teaspoon pepper soup spice
- 1 scotch bonnet, whole, pricked once
- Half a small onion, sliced
- Half a teaspoon bitter kola powder
- Salt to taste
- Bring the stock to a simmer with the onion and the whole pepper.
- Add the pepper soup spice. Simmer five minutes.
- Stir in the bitter kola powder. Simmer three more minutes.
- Taste. Add salt. Add more bitter kola only if you want it sharper.
- Fish out the pepper before serving unless you mean business.
Powder or whole nuts
For cooking, powder. It measures, it dissolves and the grinding is done. Whole nuts are for chewing and for offering to guests, and grating them by hand is slow work.
The trade off is shelf life. Ground spice fades faster than whole, so buy a size you will actually get through.
Storing it
Sealed, cool, dark, away from the cooker. Reseal after each use. If it has stopped smelling of anything, it has stopped doing anything.
Questions people ask
How much bitter kola powder is too much?
There is no official figure and we are not going to invent one. As a matter of flavour, more than about a teaspoon in a family pot and the bitterness stops being a background note and becomes the dish.
Can I substitute kola nut?
No. Different plant, different taste, and kola nut carries caffeine. See what is bitter kola for the difference.
Does it dissolve?
It disperses into hot liquid. It will not vanish completely, in the same way ground spice does not.
Can I use it in cold drinks?
Yes, but whisk it or blend it. In cold liquid it wants to sit on the surface.
Where to get it
Bitter Kola Nut Powder, 4 oz from Jeb Foods. One ingredient, 100 percent ground bitter kola nuts, in a resealable pouch. There is a subscribe and save option if you cook with it often.
Prefer the whole nut? Nigeria Bitter Kola Nut, 0.5 lb.