The refrigerator at the back of this snug Senegalese grocery was filled with sodas, maltas, and plastic bottles like the one shown here. The bottles were unlabeled, and except for the purple of the sorrel, I couldn't quickly identify their contents. Some were pale, others were just a shade darker. To tell these two apart, I brought one of each to the lady of the shop, who was nestled beside the aisle, about halfway in. (There was no counter, and, as I recall, no cash register.)
Both bottles contained ginger juice, she told me. While I returned the paler one to the fridge and the lady gently inverted the other one several times, to mix in the sediment, she added that the only difference was in the color.
Most likely, I imagine, the two bottles were prepared at different sessions. You could call the variation in color a lack of quality control, but when I think of the small-batch, perhaps home-based production process, I find it endearing.
FAL African Market (shown beside a deli that serves "todo tipo de frituras")
1466 Inwood Ave. (Macombs Rd.-West 172nd St.), Mount Eden, Bronx
929-453-9042