Lesotho's own gin and vodka

(MENAFN- The Post) ROMA -NEO Sekhesa's Vodka is elegant.
Her Gin is royal.
Sekhesa, a former student of the National University of Lesotho International School (NULIS), has finally found her passion in making locally rare alcoholic drinks.

Her vodka is so named in honour of her father Linford Sekhesa.
It is called Linford Vodka.
Her Gin is blessed with a royal name, Senate Gin.
If you drink one of the two, you can't help but feel a sense of royalty from within, even if for a moment.
Hers is not a beer—perhaps the most widely used alcoholic beverage this side of the Sahara.

It is not even a wine—that kind of liquor Basotho are clearly warming up to.
It is much more—it demands much more passion, much more commitment.
If wine is made of grapes, her vodka and gin come from grains such as wheat and maize.

Vodka and gin undergo distillation to concentrate and purify the alcohol therein.
Gin has an advantage in that it is infused with some elements of carefully chosen plants that give it a certain flavour and aroma.
Listen to the fascinating story of the girl behind Lesotho's own gin and vodka.

'When I finished schooling at NULIS, my mom asked me to take a year off,' she says.
'She was worried that I was too young to move to South Africa where I wanted to study Biotechnology.'
If you are also a mom with a young ambitious girl in the house, you know exactly how her mom felt—the attachment is deep.

She obeyed and worked as a receptionist for a year.
Not to be avoided, time came and she crossed into South Africa to follow her passion.
'I took up majors in Biotechnology at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) where I graduated with National Diploma,' she says.
When she was done, she wanted to have as much experience as possible in several different companies related to her learning experience.

Sure enough, she first landed a job with the company called Simba.
Yep—you know the company if you love 'Masimba,' the potato chips that have become almost the same thing with Simba the company, even if some of the chips have nothing to do with it.
She then moved to the National Zoological Gardens (Zoo) where she worked in the Genetics and Species preservation area.

'The whole idea of zoos is to preserve animals in their pure state (no cross-fertilization) as much as possible. So I was part of the team doing just that.'
Then she came back to TUT where she worked as a Student Assistant, 'that is where I would play around with all kinds of machines in the laboratory and my passion was being fuelled.'
She would later take the Bachelor of Technology degree at the same school where she further deepened her love for distillation.

After her Bachelors' degree, and after staying for some time in South Africa, she came home to Lesotho—home, sweet home.
It was not necessarily her intention to start a distillation business, despite her passion for it.
But for some reason, she found herself making distilling pots and mini-bioreactors and, again, just playing around.

Hers was just an idea to share what she made with her friends, 'so when I was done, I packaged my Vodka nicely and sent it back to my friends in South Africa.'
She was in for a surprise!
One of her friends who received the gift took a photo of it and put it on social media and the rest is history.

'Orders were now coming in, mind you, from South Africa!'
So this thing could become a business after all?
Without wasting further time, she made a call to her old-time friend, Mohau Mochebelele, who did not only do Investment Management at school but was also good with business coaching.

They had to put their heads together because—like a vodka—a new business was brewing!
As she started selling her product, she heard about the Bacha Entrepreneurship Project which was funding small start-ups in a rigorous business competition.

To her surprise, not only did she win, 'I actually won the first prize!'
She also won the funding that went along with it.
That was a shot in the arm. It enabled her to buy proper equipment and to increase her production levels. Now her Vodka is a constant feature in the market.

Lately, during the recent lock-down, she experimented with Gin until a nice beverage came out. This gin is based on a plant known in Sesotho as 'Shoeshoe', actually, Gazania in English.
That is where the name of the Gin, Senate, comes from.

According to the legend, shoeshoe was a plant so loved by King Moshoeshoe I that he used to make this poetic statement about one of his beloved grand-daughters called Senate, 'ke Senate, shoeshoe ea Moshoeshoe [She is Senate, the Gazania of Moshoeshoe.']
Thus shoeshoe, the figurative equivalent of Senate, at least according to King Moshoeshoe I, was seen as a royal plant.
Because she wanted to attach royalty to the Gin, Neo gave it the name, Senate.

Own Correspondent

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