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Distilled: Africa & Middle East Expansion Board Game Review
WBG Score: 8
Player Count: 1-5
You’ll like this if you like: Viticulture, The Networks
Published by: Paverson Games
Designed by: Dave Beck
This is a free review copy. See our review policy here
Distilled was already a game I rated highly, so an expansion did not need to reinvent the still. What I wanted was more variety, more interesting combinations and a reason to keep exploring a game I already enjoy. Africa & Middle East does exactly that, although anyone expecting a dramatic new way to play should temper those expectations immediately. There is another expansion that will do that for you!
This is very much a “more Distilled” expansion, and I mean that positively. Six new distillers arrive alongside new signature recipes and ingredients, market cards, upgrades, goals, awards, flavours and six additional tasting flights. The headline additions are four new spirits, Akpeteshie, Arak, Boukha and Grogue, bringing Africa and the Middle East into a game that already celebrates distilling traditions from around the world.
What's New?
Almost everything simply slots into the existing game. You can shuffle most of the new components straight into Distilled even when you are not using the expansion-specific tasting flights, although regional goals and awards need to be redrawn if their region is not represented in your chosen flight. There are three new balanced tasting flights and three more specialised options focusing on Africa and Middle Eastern spirits, non-aged spirits and aged spirits.
There are only two genuinely new mechanisms. Double Sugar ingredients show two sugar symbols, count as two sugars and therefore generate two Alcohol cards when you distil. Wild Sugar, currently represented by Glucose Syrup, can count as grain, plant or fruit when satisfying a recipe requirement.
Neither requires much additional teaching, which is exactly what I want from this sort of expansion. They simply give you more options within systems you already understand rather than stopping the game to introduce another board, phase or currency.
More Choice, Same Game
Double Sugars are probably the more interesting of the two additions. Getting two sugars from a single card can help you reach more demanding recipes efficiently, but that efficiency comes with a lovely little dose of Distilled's existing push-your-luck. Lose that one card when you remove the top and bottom cards of your spirit stack and you have potentially lost two sugars at once.
Wild Sugar offers the opposite experience. Rather than increasing the risk, it gives you flexibility when the market has not quite offered what you wanted. It can help you pivot between potential spirits, and anything that lets you make a slightly smarter decision without removing Distilled's uncertainty feels very natural here.
There are other nice touches scattered through the cards too, including more flexible barrels, ingredients, bottles and upgrades. The expansion also introduces a fourth geographical region for bottle collecting, with a new eight-point reward for displaying bottles from all four regions. None of this transforms the game, but collectively it gives an already variable system more combinations to explore.
Do You Need It?
That really depends on how often you play Distilled. If the base game only reaches your table occasionally, there is already plenty there. This expansion does not fix a fundamental problem or add some missing mechanism that suddenly makes Distilled complete. The core experience remains almost entirely unchanged.
But that is also why I like it. I did not want Distilled to become heavier, longer or harder to teach. I wanted more recipes, more distillers and more interesting cards appearing in the market, and Africa & Middle East adds all of that without disrupting the game I already enjoy.
The regional focus is also particularly welcome. Distilled has always benefited enormously from its theme, so bringing in spirits such as Akpeteshie, Arak, Boukha and Grogue feels more meaningful than simply throwing another stack of generic cards into the box. The expansion broadens the game's cultural scope while remaining completely recognisable as Distilled.
Pros
Adds plenty of variety without making Distilled meaningfully more complicated.
Double and Wild Sugars create useful new decisions inside the existing distillation system.
New spirits, identities and tasting flights strengthen an already excellent theme.
Integrates almost seamlessly with the base game.
Cons
It does not substantially change how Distilled plays.
Players who only occasionally play the base game probably do not need more content yet.
Adding another region creates a few minor setup and scoring considerations around goals, awards and bottles.
Final Thoughts
Distilled: Africa & Middle East is exactly the sort of expansion I am happy to mix permanently into a game. It does not demand attention every time you play, nor does it make you relearn anything significant. It simply increases the number of interesting things that can happen.
The Double Sugar and Wild Sugar cards are clever additions, but they are seasoning rather than a new recipe. The real attraction is the increased variety, particularly if you already know Distilled well and want new distillers, spirits, upgrades and combinations to explore.
I like this expansion. It does not dramatically improve Distilled, but it makes a game I already enjoy broader and more replayable without getting in its way, and sometimes that is exactly what an expansion should do.
