East Africa · Drink
Mies (Fermented Honey Wine)
A golden, effervescent highland honey wine balancing raw floral sweetness against the herbal, woody bitterness of sun-dried gesho.
The story
Among the Tigrinya people of the Eritrean highlands, Mies is the prestigious drink of honor, reserved exclusively for high-status guests, betrothals, and lavish wedding banquets. Historically served in bulbous, long-necked glass decanters called berele, this ancient mead relies strictly on wild yeasts present on the honeycomb and woody gesho stems. An authentic brew requires unpasteurized, raw honey with traces of comb wax, which provides vital pollen lipids to sustain fermentation without artificial yeast nutrients.
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