A guide to Saraba — the warm Makassar ginger-coconut-palm-sugar drink, served hot in glasses at evening stalls along Pantai Losari and across the city from 17:00 onwards.
Saraba is the warm ginger-coconut drink of South Sulawesi — milk, palm sugar, ginger, cinnamon, sometimes egg yolk and pepper, served hot in a glass at the warung-style stalls that operate from late afternoon through the night. Found primarily in Makassar and across the wider Bugis-Makassar coast, saraba is the Sulawesi cousin of the bandrek of West Java and the wedang jahe of Java more broadly. It is one of the more distinctive Sulawesi drinks and worth seeking out, particularly on cool evenings.
This is a short primer on saraba — what's in it, where to drink it, and how it fits into the Makassar food map.
What's in the glass
A working saraba contains:
- Coconut milk — the base. Some versions use cow's milk or condensed milk; the traditional is coconut milk.
- Palm sugar (gula merah) — for sweetness.
- Fresh ginger — grated or sliced, simmered to extract the heat.
- Cinnamon and sometimes cardamom.
- Black pepper — a small amount, for warmth on the throat.
- Egg yolk — optional, stirred in at serving for richness.
The drink is served hot, in a clear glass, often with a small sprinkle of chopped cinnamon stick or ground spice on top.
Where to drink it
Saraba is sold at:
Streetside saraba stalls. Small specialised stalls operating from around 17:00 to late at night, scattered across Makassar particularly along Jalan Sudirman, around Pantai Losari, and near the central markets. Saraba runs €0.50–€0.75 per glass.
Pantai Losari food strip. The sunset esplanade has saraba vendors mixed in with the pisang epe and jagung bakar stalls. A glass paired with a pisang epe (grilled banana in palm sugar) is the standard Pantai Losari evening combination.
Some Makassar warungs. A handful of restaurants offer saraba on the drink menu. Generally the streetside version is better.
At home. Saraba is a routine home drink in Makassar, particularly on the rare cooler evenings. Visitors staying with hosts may encounter it in the home version.
When to drink it
Saraba is evening food. Few stalls operate before 17:00. The peak hours are 19:00–23:00, with some places running into the early morning.
The drink is associated with cool weather and is more popular in the wetter months (November–April) when Makassar gets some cooler evenings. Dry-season visits will still find saraba but the consumption is lower.
How to order
The standard phrases:
- Saraba satu — one saraba.
- Pakai telur — with egg yolk (the richer version).
- Tidak pakai telur — without egg (the lighter version).
- Lebih panas — hotter (if your glass arrives cool).
Most stalls will offer the egg-yolk version by default unless you specify. For visitors uncomfortable with raw egg in a hot drink, the no-egg version is fine.
The wider Sulawesi warm-drink tradition
Saraba sits within a wider South Sulawesi warm-drink culture that also includes:
- Sarabba— a closely related drink in some parts of the Bugis coast, sometimes used interchangeably with saraba in writing.
- Bajigur — Javanese coconut-and-palm-sugar drink, occasionally available at Makassar stalls run by Javanese migrants.
- Wedang jahe — Javanese ginger tea, simpler than saraba, sometimes available.
- Bandrek — Sundanese spiced ginger drink, less common in Sulawesi.
The North Sulawesi (Minahasan) equivalent is cap tikus (distilled palm spirit) which is genuinely alcoholic and a different category of drink entirely. The wider Indonesian warm-spiced-drink tradition is varied and worth exploring across regional travel.
How saraba fits into a Makassar food day
Saraba is the closing element of a full Makassar food day:
- Morning. Coto Makassar.
- Mid-day. Pallubasa or konro kuah.
- Afternoon. Es pisang ijo and coffee.
- Sunset. Pantai Losari pisang epe and saraba.
- Late night. Konro bakar.
For visitors with one day in the city built around food, the saraba slot at sunset on Pantai Losari is one of the easier and more atmospheric experiences. A glass of saraba, a pisang epe, and the sun dropping into the Makassar Strait is the city's signature evening tableau.
A note on the egg
The raw-egg-in-hot-drink convention is widespread in Sulawesi (saraba, the egg-yolk pallubasa, the susu telur madu jahe drink). Travellers concerned about food safety should note that the egg is genuinely raw — added at the moment of serving and stirred into the hot drink, but not cooked through. Most Makassar saraba uses pasteurised eggs from the supermarket supply chain; some streetside stalls use farm-fresh eggs of variable origin.
For visitors who want to try saraba without the egg, the no-egg version (tidak pakai telur) is the safer choice and is still recognisably the same drink.
Where to take the recipe home
For visitors who want to recreate saraba at home, the dry-spice components (palm sugar, cinnamon stick, dried ginger) are widely available outside Indonesia. Fresh ginger and coconut milk are the main ingredients to source. The recipe is forgiving and produces a recognisable saraba on a first home attempt.
A small bag of gula merah from Pasar Sentral makes a sensible food souvenir from Makassar; saraba at home is a small way of carrying the experience forward.
What is saraba? Saraba is the warm ginger-coconut drink of South Sulawesi — coconut milk, palm sugar, fresh ginger, cinnamon, sometimes egg yolk and pepper. Sold at streetside stalls in Makassar and along Pantai Losari from around 17:00 to late night. The standard pairing is a glass of saraba with a pisang epe (grilled banana in palm sugar) at sunset on the bay-front esplanade.
