Zimbabwean Groceries, Brands and Products: What You Can Find in UK Supermarkets vs Specialist Stores

For Zimbabweans in the UK, recreating a taste of home takes a little more effort than a quick trip to Tesco — but it is far more achievable than it used to be. A combination of mainstream supermarkets, Southern African specialist shops, and online retailers now means many beloved Zimbabwean brands and staples are within reach across the country. ## What You Can Find in Mainstream UK Supermarkets High street supermarkets — Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, and Waitrose — carry a growing range of "world foods" but their Zimbabwean-specific stock is limited. What you will typically find includes: - **Sadza staples by proxy**: Fine white maize meal is not always labelled as sadza flour, but brands such as Nshima or imported white maize meal occasionally appear in world food aisles. More commonly, you may find yellow polenta or masa harina as the closest substitute, which is not the same thing. - **Royco seasoning**: Royco Mchuzi Mix — available in Chicken Original and Beef Original — turns up in some larger Tesco and Asda stores with world food sections, particularly in cities with significant African populations. - **Dried and canned goods**: Butter beans, cowpeas (sugar beans), and canned tomatoes are standard supermarket stock and form the base of many Zimbabwean dishes. - **Fresh vegetables**: Chomolia (African kale), pumpkin leaves, and sweet potato leaves are not typically available. However, kale, spring greens, and spinach serve as partial substitutes. For authentic Zimbabwean products specifically — the brands people grew up with — mainstream supermarkets largely fall short. ## Southern African and Zimbabwean Specialist Shops Several UK retailers specialise in Southern African food and stock genuinely Zimbabwean products: **The South African Spaza Shop** (online, southafricanshop.uk) stocks a range of Zimbabwean products explicitly, including: - **Willards Thingz** — the maize-based snack beloved across Zimbabwe, known for its crunch and distinctive seasoning - **Mazoe Orange Crush and Mazoe Cream Soda** — arguably the most emotionally significant products for the diaspora. Mazoe Orange Crush, with its thick, sweet orange concentrate, is irreplaceable for many. Cream Soda offers the smooth vanilla-adjacent flavour familiar from childhood - **Royco Mchuzi Mix** in both chicken and beef variants - **Sun Jam** — a Southern African favourite - **Maputi (salted)** — roasted maize kernels, a classic Zimbabwean snack available in 50g packs - **Happy Hippo White Maize Kernels** — white maize for sadza-making, though stock availability fluctuates - **Willards Korn Kurls** — another Zimbabwean snack staple **The Savanna** (thesavanna.co.uk) similarly stocks Zimbabwean-tagged products alongside South African goods. Stock levels vary and some items are periodically out of stock, so checking regularly is worthwhile. **Kalahari Moon** in Bristol explicitly stocks South African and Zimbabwean foods and drinks, including biltong. This is one of the few physical shops in the UK with a dedicated Southern African offering rather than a predominantly West African one. ## African Grocery Stores Across the UK The broader African grocery store network — which skews heavily towards West African products — can still yield useful finds for Zimbabweans: - **White maize meal** (sadza flour): Available in many African grocers, though brands may be South African or Nigerian variants rather than National Foods or Blue Ribbon from Zimbabwe - **Dried beans and legumes**: Sugar beans, borlotti beans, and cowpeas feature widely - **Dried fish and crayfish**: Useful for flavouring stews in the absence of specific Zimbabwean varieties - **Palm oil and cooking oils**: Widely stocked, though not a typical Zimbabwean cooking oil (which tends to be sunflower) - **Fresh vegetables**: Okra, which features in Zimbabwean cooking, is widely available in African stores Key physical African grocery hubs by city: - **London**: Rye Lane (Peckham), Ridley Road Market (Dalston), Brixton Market - **Birmingham**: Handsworth, Soho Road, Bullring Open Market - **Manchester**: Global African Ltd in Hulme, Moston Lane area, Cheetham Hill - **Edinburgh**: Several stores on Dalry Road - **Glasgow**: Revolutions Heritage African Supermarket ## Shopping Online Online shopping has transformed access for the diaspora, particularly for those outside London and Birmingham. The South African Spaza Shop and The Savanna both offer UK-wide delivery. AfroGrocers (Leeds-based, UK-wide delivery) and Aomart (African Caribbean and Asian produce, 12–48 hour delivery) expand options further, though these are not Zimbabwean-specific. For the most reliable access to Mazoe, Willards products, and Royco, ordering directly from Southern African-focused online shops is currently the most consistent route. ## Products That Remain Hard to Find Some items are genuinely difficult to source in the UK regardless of where you look: - **Lacto** (the fermented milk drink) - **Chibuku** (opaque traditional beer) - **Nyimo (jugo beans/round nuts)** — occasionally found in African stores but not reliably - **Dried mopane worms** — very rare, though occasionally found through specialist importers - **National Foods brands** (Ufa wetness, Cerevita) — largely unavailable through standard UK retail Cerevita (the popular breakfast porridge) is sometimes brought over by travellers from Zimbabwe or South Africa, as it is not widely sold commercially in the UK. ## Practical Tips - Join local Zimbabwean WhatsApp community groups — members regularly share updates on where specific products have appeared in stock - Check South African shops first for Zimbabwean brands, as distribution routes tend to come through South Africa - Online stock for niche items like Maputi and Mazoe fluctuates — subscribe to stock alerts where retailers offer them - Mazoe Orange can sometimes be found in diluted cordial format from specialist importers; quality varies significantly from the original concentrate - Biltong, widely available from South African shops including Kalahari Moon in Bristol, uses familiar Southern African spicing and is culturally adjacent even if not distinctly Zimbabwean