Honey Wine · Ethiopia's Ceremonial Brew
Tej
📷 Closely related photo — Photo: Rod Waddington from Kergunyah, Australia / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
It's sweetened and clarified with the bitter twigs and leaves of a shrub called gesho, which also drives the fermentation instead of commercial yeast.
Tej is a home-brewed honey wine fermented with gesho (a hop-like local plant), giving it a sweet, slightly bitter, wine-like character that ranges from light to strongly alcoholic. It's served in rounded flask-shaped glasses called berele at tej houses and street-side stalls throughout Ethiopia.
Why it's made this way: It has deep roots in Ethiopian royal and ceremonial tradition, historically reserved for nobility, and remains a centerpiece of celebrations and everyday tej-house culture alike.
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