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More sachets #2

You can think of this article as a follow up to my article, Miniature Bottles?!? in miNiZ94 and
More Sachets from Errol Brassett in miNiZ95. Since writing the two articles a few more
sachets have been added to Miniature Bottle Library, making 130 in all. I will soon be adding
about another 140. These extras came about in a rather unusual way – read on.

It all started with me (with my MBL hat on) finding a bottle from Palestine on a
Slovakian web site whilst looking for something else. This was not the old
Palestine British Mandate (now largely Israel) but the new Palestine proto-
state. Jim Crawford runs the definitive site, http://jimsbottles.com/, showing
bottles from most countries and territories in the world, together with a list of
countries Jim knows have made bottles but that he does not have a bottle
from. Palestine, as I suspected, was not represented. I therefore emailed him a
copy of the photo. Needless to say neither of us can read Arabic but Jim knows
someone who does. It tuned out that it contains Sweet Almond Oil so it does
not fit in with Jim’s collection or the criteria of MBL. So, no country added for
either of us.

However, as well as a list of countries Jim is looking for bottles
from, there is also a few photos of bottles from countries that Jim
is looking for and that provide proof that they do/have produced
bottles. Among them was the sachet on the left from Sierra
Leone. MBL has no bottles from Sierra Leone so I copied the
photo, then decided to see whether I could find a photo of the full
sachet, and one good enough to show the maker.

The good thing about the internet is that any search throws up
links that are only tangentially related to what you are search for, which lead you to other
links etc etc. I found Double Punch, it is indeed from Sierra Leone, from a company called M.
R. Distilleries. I also found photos of two other of their products, Flash & Tyson (all now on
MBL). Following other links I found another company from Sierra Leone, Shankerdas & Sons
(R. K. Distilleries), trading as Pegapak, and they had 11 photos of sachets they make on
their web site. The sachets below are from this company.

As well as throwing up this other company from Sierra Leone links also led to companies
from all over Africa and India (and a few further afield), some of which I knew about but
many of which I didn’t. More about this later but first a few bits of interesting information
about these sachets. They vary from 25ml (common) to 100ml and can sell as cheaply as a
few cents each. Some are made by respected multinationals, such as Diageo (through local
African subsidiaries), and some by respectable local companies. Some are made by back-
street operators and some of the sachets that some of these operators make are blatant
knock-offs. The knock-offs sometimes contain alcohol of very dubious origin, including
mythyl alcohol (which can kill you or send you blind!). I hate to think what some of these
sachets taste like as even the best contain cheap spirit.

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