East Africa · Drink
Tej (Traditional Fermented Honey Wine Flavored with Gesho)
Golden, effervescent Ethiopian honey mead infused with earthy, bitter gesho wood, balancing wild floral sweetness with complex herbal tang.
The story
Tej holds a revered place in Ethiopian social culture as the drink of royalty, historically reserved for nobility and the imperial court before becoming the centerpiece of Tej Bets (mead houses) nationwide. It is consumed in specialized bulbous glass flasks called berele at weddings, holidays, and Sunday community gatherings. The vital herbal character comes from gesho (Rhamnus prinoides), which imparts not only a distinctive clean bitterness that cuts unctuous wild honey sugars, but also wild yeasts and natural antimicrobial compounds essential for stable spontaneous fermentation.
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