Tej is an Ethiopian honey wine made from just three core ingredients: honey, water, and a bittering plant called gesho. The basic ratio is one part honey to four or five parts water, fermented at room temperature for roughly two to three weeks. It’s one of the oldest and simplest fermented beverages you can make at home, though the technique requires patience and attention as the flavor develops.
What You Need
Traditional tej uses raw, unprocessed honey, water, and gesho. Gesho (Rhamnus prinoides) is an East African shrub that serves as a bittering agent, similar to what hops do in beer. A compound in gesho called geshoidin gives tej its characteristic bitter edge and also acts as a natural antimicrobial, suppressing unwanted bacteria while letting yeast do its work. You can find dried gesho sticks or gesho powder (called gesho kitel) at Ethiopian grocery stores or online.
For honey, any raw, unfiltered wildflower honey works well. Ethiopian honey tends to come from bees foraging on diverse highland plants, giving it complex floral notes. If you can find a multifloral or darker honey with strong flavor, that will produce a more interesting tej than a mild clover honey. You want roughly one pound of honey for every four cups of water as a starting point, though you can adjust sweeter or drier to taste.
You do not need commercial yeast. Traditional tej relies on wild yeast naturally present in raw honey and on the gesho itself. This is part of what makes the process slower but also what gives tej its distinctive flavor profile. If you prefer a more predictable fermentation, a wine yeast will work, but it changes the character of the final drink.
The Two-Stage Process
Tej is traditionally made in two stages. The first stage, called birzi, is a simple honey-water mixture that kickstarts fermentation. The second stage introduces gesho for flavor and lets the brew finish fermenting.
Stage One: Birzi
Mix one part honey with four to five parts water in a clean glass jar or food-safe container. Stir thoroughly until the honey is fully dissolved. Cover the container with a cloth or loose lid that allows air exchange but keeps insects out. Place it somewhere warm, ideally around 22°C (72°F), which is a comfortable room temperature in most homes.
Let this mixture sit for four to five days, stirring once or twice daily. You’ll start to see small bubbles forming on the surface, which means wild yeast has begun converting the sugars. The liquid may turn slightly cloudy. This is normal and expected.
Stage Two: Adding Gesho
After the birzi is actively bubbling, add your gesho. If using gesho sticks, break or chop about a handful (roughly 2 to 3 ounces) per gallon of liquid and drop them directly in. If using powdered gesho, start with about a tablespoon per gallon. You can always add more later if you want a stronger bitter note. Powdered gesho works faster but can make the tej harder to strain later.
Cover the container again and let it ferment for another two to three weeks. Stir every few days during the first week, then leave it alone. The fermentation will slow down naturally as the yeast consumes available sugar. You’ll notice the bubbling decrease and the liquid begin to clear.
Taste it periodically after the first week. Tej is traditionally served ranging from quite sweet to fairly dry, so the length of fermentation is really about your preference. A shorter fermentation (14 to 16 days total) produces a sweeter, lower-alcohol tej. Letting it go the full three weeks or slightly longer yields a drier, stronger version. Finished tej typically lands around 11% alcohol by volume, comparable to a medium-bodied wine.
Temperature and Timing
Fermentation temperature matters more than most beginners realize. Around 22°C (72°F) is the sweet spot for tej. Too cold and fermentation stalls or never starts, especially when relying on wild yeast. Too warm (above 30°C or 86°F) and you risk off-flavors or encouraging the wrong microorganisms. If your home runs cool, placing the container near a water heater or on top of the refrigerator can help. In summer, a shaded spot away from direct sunlight works fine.
The total timeline from start to finish is roughly three weeks, though traditional brewers in Ethiopia sometimes let their tej ferment for a month or longer depending on conditions and the strength they’re after. There’s no single correct endpoint. Your palate is the best guide.
Straining and Serving
Once fermentation reaches your desired sweetness and strength, strain the tej through cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer to remove the gesho pieces and any sediment. You may need to strain it twice for clarity, though tej is traditionally served slightly hazy rather than crystal clear.
Transfer the strained tej into bottles or a sealed container and refrigerate it. The cold temperature slows any remaining fermentation. Tej is best consumed within a few weeks of bottling. If you’re using bottles with tight caps, be cautious: residual fermentation can build pressure. Either use bottles designed for carbonated beverages or leave the caps slightly loose for the first day or two in the fridge.
Tej is traditionally served in a berele, a round-bottomed glass flask, but any glass will do. It pairs well with spicy Ethiopian dishes, where its sweetness and slight bitterness balance the heat of berbere-spiced stews.
How to Tell If Something Went Wrong
With any wild fermentation, there’s a small chance things go sideways. Here’s what to watch for:
- Mold on the surface. Green, blue, brown, or black fuzzy growth means contamination. Discard the entire batch immediately. Mold cannot be scooped off and salvaged safely in a liquid ferment.
- A white or grayish film. This is usually kahm yeast, not mold. It’s not dangerous but can produce off-flavors if it gets excessive. You can skim it off and continue fermenting, but if the tej tastes unpleasant, it’s best to start over.
- A putrid smell. Fermenting tej should smell pleasantly sour, yeasty, and honey-sweet. If it smells rotten or makes you recoil, that’s a failed fermentation. Throw it out.
- No bubbles after a week. If you see zero signs of fermentation after five to seven days, the wild yeast may not have taken hold. Try adding a pinch of wine yeast or bread yeast to rescue the batch, or start fresh with a different honey.
Keeping your containers clean (washed with hot water, no soap residue) and using raw honey rather than pasteurized honey dramatically reduces the chance of problems. Pasteurized honey has had its natural yeast killed off, which means you’d need to add commercial yeast for fermentation to begin.
Adjusting Sweetness and Strength
The beauty of tej is its flexibility. If your first batch comes out too dry, increase the honey ratio next time, going closer to one part honey to three parts water. If it’s cloyingly sweet, either let it ferment longer or reduce the honey to a 1:5 ratio. The gesho quantity is similarly adjustable. Some people like a pronounced bitter finish, others prefer the honey flavor to dominate with gesho adding just a subtle backbone.
If you can’t find gesho at all, some home brewers substitute a small amount of hops, since both serve as bittering agents with antimicrobial properties. The flavor won’t be identical, but it gets you in the neighborhood. Use a low-alpha hop variety and go easy, maybe half an ounce per gallon, since hops can overpower the delicate honey flavor quickly.