I visited African Originals for a one-hour tour, and it was mesmerizing. The visit offered a clear view of how a Kenyan craft beverage company can knit two value chains into one coherent sustainability story, one rooted in agriculture and another in creativity. The agricultural chain begins with smallholder farmers, aggregators, and local companies that supply fresh fruit and spices. The creative chain includes artists and artisan groups who add cultural identity to packaging and brand experiences. The result is a portfolio that links farm level livelihoods and urban craft to products that consumers can trace and trust.
African Originals began commercial operations in Kenya in 2018. The company built early traction with ciders under the Kenyan Originals label, then expanded into gins, tonics, and later iced teas. Today the umbrella is African Originals, with products spanning Kenyan Originals, African Originals, and 58 Gin, and a portfolio approaching thirty in market products across those lines. The market position is clear, quality drinks made from natural inputs, inspired by African culture, delivered through a lean, innovation focused plant in Nairobi. External reporting confirms the founder’s path and brand architecture, with Alexandra Chappatte, CEO and Founder, steering a craft portfolio that now includes ciders, spirits, tonics, and iced teas under the Kenyan Originals, African Originals, and 5.8 Spirits banners.
The production philosophy is straightforward. Use real Kenyan inputs and prove their origin. I saw fruit, herbs, and botanicals that are sourced locally at scale. The team described coriander seeds, angelica roots, and liquorice roots among the key botanicals for gin recipes. They explained that neutral spirit is sourced from the Muhoroni plains, and that the company works with juniper growers in the Kijabe area to secure African juniper berries for distinct flavor profiles. Product notes in the market reinforce that local sourcing is a defining approach, with ingredients like bitter orange leaves from Kilifi, lemongrass from Kabati, bay leaves from Kinangop, and roses from the Mount Kenya region used in flagship gins. The company is building a digital traceability system that will allow a consumer to scan a code and see where the drink was grown and made, linking farm and factory information into a single view.
Read also: WRI report launched at AFS Forum 2025 exposes billions lost to food waste in Kenya
Alexandra Chappatte, CEO and founder, often describes sustainability not merely as a responsibility but as the very heart of African Originals’ purpose, she speaks of it as a commitment that allows the company to “honour provenance, pride, and story,” ensuring that each product not only tastes like Kenya but also carries the weight of its communities. Caroline Gichure, head of sustainability, reinforces this vision in the 2024 Impact Report, observing that “traceability empowers consumers to connect with the origins of their drink, while farmers and artisans gain visibility and value beyond the bottle.” Together their voices underscore a belief that sustainability must be visible, economically inclusive, and culturally rooted, driving African Originals not just to craft drinks, but to craft impact.
The social impact sits in real stories of farmers and artists, and in the families behind them. One premium release places artisan work at the center, a beaded closure created by women from Kajiado that turns each bottle into a source of income and visibility for local craft. This model has already been used on a national stage, with Maasai artisan beadwork featured on premium gin releases and brand activations that bring Kenyan heritage into the packaging. The approach extends to the wider creative community, the company collaborates with matatu artists and creators to showcase Kenyan visual identity across merchandise and mobile brand touchpoints. These creative partnerships are not simply decorative, they are a jobs and inclusion strategy that moves income directly to households.
A formal sustainability platform supports this. African Originals achieved B Corp certification in 2025, reported as the first gin and cider producer in Africa to do so. The company’s communications link that certification to enterprise development for women and youth, and to commitments on packaging and resource use. Programmes sit under banners such as She Originals, a female entrepreneurship and community platform that convenes learning, mentorship, and market linkages, and that runs as a daughter brand of African Originals. The She Originals footprint is visible on the company’s impact communications and channels that document cohorts and events over multiple seasons.
The brand building and innovation agenda has received external validation. In 2024 African Originals took the Brand Innovator recognition at the World Gin Awards for the KO Klub and Mara Gin work, an Icons of Gin citation that spotlights brand presentation and in person experiences. The product awards side has also included gold for Kenyan Originals Purple Haze Gin, and earlier global recognition for KO Classic Gin at the World Beverage Innovation Awards. These awards matter in a sustainability story because they translate supply chain credibility into shelf recognition and category pull, which is essential for scaling impact with farmers and artisans.
The company’s slogan, remarkable not remakeable, encapsulates a claim about provenance and originality. It is a cultural statement as much as a marketing line, one the brand reiterates in public channels. The internal teams described the slogan as a north star for product development and for community programmes that foreground Kenyan identity. That stance is reinforced by the company’s expansion narrative, which is now extending the portfolio beyond Kenya into the wider African market. Reporting shows the firm building distribution in East Africa, including Uganda, while retaining a product development center of gravity in Nairobi.
Read also: AGRA crowns Africa’s top women agripreneurs at 2025 WAYA awards
Sustainability learning is not limited to internal staff. The company has been teaching sustainability practice to partners across the chain, from safe waste handling and water stewardship at aggregation points to quality and traceability documentation with farmers. On the consumer side the team is explicit about the need for buyers to prefer produce and beverages that are sustainability driven. The premise is simple, if consumers reward products that disclose origin and impact, they drive more investment into the very communities that grow, distill, and finish those products. The company’s digital traceability work is central to this, since a scan that reveals farm data and craft attribution builds trust and nudges informed choice at the point of purchase.
Innovation also grows through collaboration. The Crafted By approach brings in mixologists and creators to co-develop limited products, packaging stories, and content that can ship in a can. The platform complements physical spaces such as the KO Kraft Room and Kocktail Bar, where brand teams and collaborators prototype recipes, host launches, and test education formats. For a company that is market driven, these co creation loops keep products in dialogue with consumer taste, seasonality, and cultural moments.
Youth and women are central to the operating model. On the youth side, brand activations and ambassador networks create income and skills in sales, events, and digital content. On the women’s side, She Originals builds pathways for entrepreneurs, artisan groups earn through beadwork and merchandising contracts, and farm level women participate in fruit aggregation and spice cultivation. The impact is visible first in families, in school fees and household stability, then in communities as groups formalize and gain repeat orders. This is the logic of inclusive value chains, revenue anchored in a branded product that moves back through the chain as stable offtake and service contracts.
Challenges are real. Changing weather patterns are disrupting yields for fruit and botanicals, which introduces variability in quality and volume. Farmers spoke to irregular rains and heat that complicate harvesting and post harvest handling. In the plant, a second order challenge sits with data. When ingredients arrive from many smallholders and artisan inputs come from multiple groups, centralizing data that links purchase orders, supplier practices, and batch records is not trivial. The traceability build is an answer to both issues. With digital lot tracking and supplier profiles, the team can substitute responsibly during climate shocks and still disclose origin, and it can direct agronomy and training to suppliers that need it most.
Read also: Congo signs offshore oil deal with QatarEnergy as African exploration surge continues’
The company’s product canvas is broad. Ciders that use real fruit remain a core volume driver. Gins that mirror natural drinks and botanicals anchored in Kenyan terroir set the standard for spirits. Nonalcoholic mixers and iced teas extend the brand into daytime and culinary contexts. The African Originals label now sits in multiple African markets, and the Kenyan Originals and 58 Gin lines have become reference points for craft made in Kenya. Awards confirm credibility, but the real test remains the grocery shelf or bar back in Nairobi and Kampala where a consumer can pick up a bottle, scan it, and see the story from farm to factory to family.
The visit highlighted how a sustainability ledger becomes a brand ledger when a company is serious about origin, quality, and inclusion. Agriculture meets artistry in tangible ways, a juniper harvest in Kijabe, a neutral spirit from Muhoroni, a beadwork group in Kajiado, a matatu artist who paints a tuk tuk for an activation, a mixologist who turns a co-developed recipe into content in a can, and a consumer who starts to demand traceable, responsibly made drinks. That is the African Originals thesis, and it is already moving from a line on a wall to product in hand. The education piece remains important. Consumers need to know what is in the bottle and why that matters. The company is contributing to that shift, one scan, one training, and one collaboration at a time.
