Uganda's Gold Shea
Regardless of how it's done, pounding and grinding dried Shea nuts by hand is one method of making shea butter; another requires two persons to press a lever while a cold press machine transforms Shea nut oil into a creamy pale yellow butter. Producing shea butter is labor-intensive work, and depending on how it's made, it can cost over $50 per kilogram. However, this isn't just any shea butter—this is East African shea butter, the most expensive version of the well-known product. When someone hears the word "shea butter," they probably think of the West African variety, but in East Africa, there is a different kind of shea nut subspecies called nyoa.
