T'ej: a grape-less wine that will blow your mind.

T'ej is the national drink of Ethiopia. A sweet golden honey-wine, it is indigenous to the country with roots going back to the 1,000 BCE. It is considered to be one of the oldest alcoholic beverages ever produced. Traditionally, it was used to toast the bride and groom at weddings. T’ej is usually home-brewed for family consumption and rarely sold commercially. Each household has its own family recipe with variations in taste resulting from the type of honey used, as well as the materials and time involved in making the mead.

Unlike kombucha, t’ej is spontaneously fermented. This means that no lab-grown yeast is added for fermentation purposes and instead, wild yeast and bacteria present in the air ferment the honey water that is used as a base. T’ej has a deceptively sweet taste that masks its high alcohol content, which varies according to length of fermentation.  Although grape wines were introduced into Ethiopia over fifty years ago, the preferred wine is still t’ej!

A berele of homemade t'ej.