Adjective
Pronunciation: kehm’-eh-lohk nod’-u-wah
Sweet-bitter. This term complements kemelok nesiicho (sweet-sour).

This taste is generally thought of as a fault, and is used when the flavor of the botanical used to sterilize the lmala dominates all other flavors in the finished milk. This especially applies to the bitter woods. Milk becomes kemelok nodua when not enough of the smoke has been removed, as even bitter woods, such as serai, taste good when the cleaning is done well. This defect is a side effect of failing to wipe clean the lmala after it has been sterilized with burning sticks. Milk from nkalani women (sloppy, careless, slovenly) has not had enough charcoal and smoke removed from the lmala, therefore the milk tastes only okay, not exactly good. A well-prepared lmala leaves only a hint of charcoal on a testing finger swiped on its interior, but kemelok nodua is produced by a distinctly sooty interior. Some complain that kemelok nodua milk makes your stomach rumble, boil, and may even cause diarrhea (see quote below). The aftertaste will also have a strong astringent component. 

Outsiders may read this flavor as overpoweringly smoky. In the Northern Maa language, kemelok nodua is not an appreciated taste, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t favored amongst other culinary cultures. Other pastoralist tribes in the region, such as the Kalenjin, Pokot, and Turkana, have different aesthetic standards. This can include milk that is sooty, presumably kemelok nodua, but in this case it is culturally appreciated. If you are not Chinese and have not grown up with bitter melon, I think you will find it a taste that is very difficult to embrace. 

See also the related term kemelok nesiicho.

“If you drink this milk, it can make your stomach boil, make the gassy rumbling noises.” — Robin Leparsanti, Longhiro Lekudere in conversation with William Rubel, April 1, 2016.

“[I have heard that] When you take this milk, you can see your stomach run around like riding in a bus — vroom, vroom, vroom.” — Longhiro Lekudere in conversation with William Rubel, January 15, 2025.

Return to Milk Taste and Texture terms.

This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.

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Published by William Rubel

I am an author who writes about traditional food and foodways. My book, The Magic of Fire (2002) is about hearth cooking. I have written an introductory history of bread, Bread, a global history (2011) and am currently writing a history of bread for the University of California Press. Other areas of interest include wild mushrooms, and specifically the treatment of Amanita muscaria in the historic record. I also write about Early Modern British Gardens, and for a more general audience, I write for Mother Earth News on bread, gardening, and more. I have an ongoing research project into the smoke-cured fermented milk of the Kenyan Samburu tribe. I am a co-director of the Samburu Lowlands Research Station, Lengusaka. I am the founding editor (1972) of Stone Soup, the magazine of writing and art by young people.

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