Yarrie Bangura says she is always glad to have come to Addi Road. “Everything good started here.”
She has just signed a temporary contract with a major supermarket to supply them with her special blend of ginger drink. Depending on how things go, the contract will become a more permanent arrangement.
Her drink is called Aunty’s Ginger Tonic. Any special tricks to the recipe or you have to keep it all top secret? “No,” Yarrie laughs. “I just use herbs like tamarind and cloves with ginger mix. Now I am working on new flavours with lemon and pineapple.”
Addi Road CEO Rosanna Barbero reminds Yarrie of the early days, mixing up her recipe in pots at the Addi Road street food market. On the day a passing local took a big shine to what they were drinking and offered to find Yarrie local manufacturing help, scaling up her very pleasing ginger potion into a serious business project.
Now things are stepping up again with the supermarket deal. Yarrie has called by to give Rosanna the news and express her thanks for how it all started. Gurwinder Kaur, Addi Road’s Office and Venues Manager is very pleased to hear Yarrie’s news too. “I think you are getting more beautiful as well!”, Gurwinder says.
It’s been a big few years for Yarrie, originally from Sierra Leone. She got herself going working multiple jobs but her ginger drink was always the dream project.
Up against the tides of struggle that everyone has been through these last few years, and starting with not much at all at Addi Road, it’s been a series of big changes for her. During covid and in-between lockdowns she also met a lovely guy – a good person for me” – and got married. “Just a low key ceremony.”
Rosanna and Gurwinder jump on to the lounge with Yarrie for a quick photo. Old friends happy to share in good news. A special tonic all its own.
Yarrie Bangura, Rosanna Barbero and Gurwinder Kaur