Tigernut Milk (Kunu Aya): Benefits, Nutrition & Why We Cold-Press It

Long before "plant milk" became a supermarket category, northern Nigeria was drinking kunu aya — tigernut milk — out of recycled bottles on every street corner. It turns out our grandmothers were ahead of the trend.

What is a tigernut?

Despite the name, a tigernut isn't a nut at all — it's a small tuber, sweet and slightly chewy, sold dried or fresh across Nigerian markets. Soaked and pressed, it yields a creamy, naturally sweet milk.

The nutrition

• Resistant starch & fibre that feed your gut bacteria and keep you full.
• Healthy fats similar in profile to olive oil.
• Magnesium, potassium and iron — minerals most Nigerian diets run short on.
• Naturally dairy-free, nut-free and gluten-free, so it works for almost everyone.

Why cold-pressed, not roadside

Traditional kunu aya is delicious but risky: it's often made with untreated water and sits unrefrigerated in the sun for hours. We soak clean, press cold, bottle immediately and keep it chilled — same ancestral drink, none of the gamble.

How to drink it

Cold, on its own, as a breakfast-on-the-go. Or blend a bottle into a smoothie for extra creaminess. It's the most Nigerian "oat milk" you'll ever taste — except we had it first.