Tej, Traditional Ethiopian Mead Options

[Listermann]

Every once in a while, like today, some Ethiopian ladies will come into the shop wanting to make Tej, usually for a wedding. They usually want to make a lot of it - 30 gallons today. Tej is hopped mead. My searches didn't turn up much except that the hops are to be "woody" and had a special name. The ladies said that this actually means the bine as well as the flowers. They had no idea of the gravity or bitterness level. I could find no references in books nearby and rather poor internet sources like how to fake it. A mead digest recipe was dismissed as having dates and rasins in it. They said that was clearly incorrect.

This happens enough that I would like to get some experience in making it so I can talk more difinitivly in the future. Any help?

Dan Listermann

[Braindead]

Tej is a wine made from fermented honey and a special kind of hops called gesho. It is similar to mead. Still searching for more info.

[Braindead]

Mead Recipe for T'ej


I think the first problem with all attempts to translate Tej recipes is that
"hops" is a translation by analogy. Gesho is a species of buckthorn. DON'T
substitute the ornamental buckthorn or the native Californian species as
they are hazardously potent laxatives.

"Woody hops" versus "leafy hops" refers to both the bark and leaves being
used. The leaves are used alone to make beer (Suwa or Tella) but Tej (or
Mies) uses some combination of bark and leaves.

Obtaining Gesho requires a trip to Washington DC or Toronto. LA probably is
good, too, but I don't know. In Toronto, the address is in Kensington
Market:
Ethiopian Spices
60 Kensington Ave (at Baldwin)
Toronto ON M5T 2K1
416-598-3014
The owner also has another store in the market selling non-food items. I
think it was on Augusta. Another store has some African items, but no
Gesho.

If in Washington, look for stores with names starting with "Merkato". A bit
of searching on the web for "Ethiopian or Eritrean food" should turn up a
list. I tried arranging a mail-order once, but the US-Canadian border
created extra hassle in that it would have taken a lot of exchanged faxes to
sort out the price and delivery. I finally managed to pass through Toronto
on holiday and stocked up.

One member of this group turned up a web link to a store in Denver, but they
didn't reply to emails and I knew that the stores in Washington do a lot of
mail-order.

Gesho is expensive, even in its own habitat.

The flavour of the leaf is quite unlike hops. I used some in place of hops
in a bitter recipe just to characterize the flavour. If I had to
substitute, I would try a small amount of aged hops (like for a lambic) for
the antibacterial action and a handful of yellow birch twigs for a vague
wintergreen-citrus flavour.

For comparison, here's my recipe, obtained in a mixture of sign language,
Tigrinya and Italian (none of which I speak):

(for 16-18 L)
Start:
4 cups powdered Gesho leaves (replace part with bark if
available)
1 1/2 cups malt (whole grains)
1 cup sugar
pkg dry bakers' yeast
5-6 L water
Leave 2 days for fermentation to start

Add:
4 lbs pale honey, including whole combs if possible
2 kg dried dates, chopped
2 kg raisins
Water to make 18 L
Ferment 13 days.

Strain out solids. Add some sugar or honey to taste if too sour. Bulk
condition in a pressure-resistant container (like an olive barrel) 15 days.
Decant and serve while yeast still slowly active.

This recipe gives a result very much like champagne & OJ. It's very easy
drinking and very alcoholic. The sourness is from the lactobacillus
introduced on the malt selected by the antibacterial action of the Gesho.
The flora make quite an impressive sight under the microscope but don't let
that frighten you!

So good luck obtaining Gesho in either form, and I think either recipe would
work. Do you know anyone from that part of the world? You would find them
quite willing to taste test for you.

This post has been edited by Braindead: Mar 21 2005, 09:07 PM

[Listermann]

Mead Recipe for T'ej
I think the first problem with all attempts to translate Tej recipes is that
"hops" is a translation by analogy.  Gesho is a species of buckthorn.  DON'T
substitute the ornamental buckthorn or the native Californian species as
they are hazardously potent laxatives.

"Woody hops" versus "leafy hops" refers to both the bark and leaves being
used.  The leaves are used alone to make beer (Suwa or Tella) but Tej (or
Mies) uses some combination of bark and leaves.

Obtaining Gesho requires a trip to Washington DC or Toronto.  LA probably is
good, too, but I don't know.  In Toronto, the address is in Kensington
Market:
                Ethiopian Spices
                60 Kensington Ave (at Baldwin)
                Toronto ON  M5T 2K1
                416-598-3014
The owner also has another store in the market selling non-food items.  I
think it was on Augusta.  Another store has some African items, but no
Gesho.

If in Washington, look for stores with names starting with "Merkato".  A bit
of searching on the web for "Ethiopian or Eritrean food" should turn up a
list.  I tried arranging a mail-order once, but the US-Canadian border
created extra hassle in that it would have taken a lot of exchanged faxes to
sort out the price and delivery.  I finally managed to pass through Toronto
on holiday and stocked up.

One member of this group turned up a web link to a store in Denver, but they
didn't reply to emails and I knew that the stores in Washington do a lot of
mail-order.

Gesho is expensive, even in its own habitat.

The flavour of the leaf is quite unlike hops.  I used some in place of hops
in a bitter recipe just to characterize the flavour.  If I had to
substitute, I would try a small amount of aged hops (like for a lambic) for
the antibacterial action and a handful of yellow birch twigs for a vague
wintergreen-citrus flavour.

For comparison, here's my recipe, obtained in a mixture of sign language,
Tigrinya and Italian (none of which I speak):

(for 16-18 L)
Start:
            4 cups powdered Gesho leaves (replace part with bark if
available)
            1 1/2 cups malt (whole grains)
            1 cup sugar
            pkg dry bakers' yeast
            5-6 L water
Leave 2 days for fermentation to start

Add:
            4 lbs pale honey, including whole combs if possible
            2 kg dried dates, chopped
            2 kg raisins
            Water to make 18 L
Ferment 13 days.

Strain out solids.  Add some sugar or honey to taste if too sour.  Bulk
condition in a pressure-resistant container (like an olive barrel) 15 days.
Decant and serve while yeast still slowly active.

This recipe gives a result very much like champagne & OJ.  It's very easy
drinking and very alcoholic.  The sourness is from the lactobacillus
introduced on the malt selected by the antibacterial action of the Gesho.
The flora make quite an impressive sight under the microscope but don't let
that frighten you!

So good luck obtaining Gesho in either form, and I think either recipe would
work.  Do you know anyone from that part of the world?  You would find them
quite willing to taste test for you.

I heard the word "mies" a lot between these ladies. I showed them the above, but they dismissed it when they saw the dates and raisens, plus the bakers yeast made them laugh. When I told her that I might have some hop bine from last year, she was interested. Still I don't think she know much about it. She said that she could get Ethiopean honey, but was impressed with my commercial honey. She said that she would consult with her aunt.

The were about the third or fourth couple of these ladies to come into my shop in as many years I suppose.

Dan Listermann

[PaulK]

Every once in a while, like today, some Ethiopian ladies will come into the shop wanting to make Tej, usually for a wedding.  They usually want to make a lot of it - 30 gallons today.  Tej is hopped mead.  My searches didn't turn up much except that the hops are to be "woody" and had a special name. The ladies said that this actually means the bine as well as the flowers.  They had no idea of the gravity or bitterness level.  I could find no references in books nearby and rather poor internet sources like how to fake it.  A mead digest recipe was dismissed as having dates and rasins in it.  They said that was clearly incorrect.

This happens enough that I would like to get some experience in making it so I can talk more difinitivly in the future.  Any help?

Dan Listermann

Scrap those crappy hops. I know someone who attempted to work with them commercially. Poorly stored, cheesy and more vines and leaves than hops. Do a blend of Fuggle and Saaz. You'll get the woodiness with a more refined character.

[Andrew]

My dad was born in Ethiopia and lived there most of his life. We have Ethiopian food quite often and I've had Tej quite a few times back in the day. I remeber it being very sweet but with a white wine character (it's been a while, sorry that's all i remeber).

I know they make Tej commericaly (i've bought bottles) and you can pick it up a bottle at an Ethiopian market or resturant. Tell the ladies to bring you a bottle and see what you can figure out yourself.

I have this link which might be helpful: http://www.gotmead.com/mead-research/tej-in-america.shtml

This post has been edited by abehesni: Mar 22 2005, 01:59 AM

[Listermann]

My dad was born in Ethiopia and lived there most of his life.  We have Ethiopian food quite often and I've had Tej quite a few times back in the day. I remeber it being very sweet but with a white wine character (it's been a while, sorry that's all i remeber).

I know they make Tej commericaly (i've bought bottles) and you can pick it up a bottle at an Ethiopian market or resturant. Tell the ladies to bring you a bottle and see what you can figure out yourself.

I have this link which might be helpful: http://www.gotmead.com/mead-research/tej-in-america.shtml

Thanks. I am starting to believe that the "gesho" woody hops are not hops as we think of it but another plant entirely.

Dan

[hiddendragonet]

Dan, I was hunting around for some info on high molecular gravity carbohydrates in mead and wines, and I stumbled across this piece.

http://www.gotmead.com/cgi-bin/csNews/csNe...ewone&id=1&op=t

T'ej in America

10-27-2004


by Virginia Davis (republished by permission from the Meadmakers Journal)
From the Fall '89 Meadmakers Journal
The national drink of Ethiopia is T'ej, a golden sweet honey-wine. T'ej is a mead that is indigenous to Ethiopia with roots going backto the 4th century.

In Ethiopia, T'ej is made in private homes for family consumption and is not sold commercially. Each household has its own family recipe and variations in taste result from the type of honey used, temperature, climate, materials and utensils and the time involved in making the mead. Ethiopians purchase gallons of honey at a time to produce the mead and the taste can be as individual as the imagination of the person making it. The same recipe can vary frommother to daughter, for the mead is made from instinct as much as from a recipe.

In Ethiopia, T'ej is consumed at mealtimes and as a cocktail. Traditionally, it was also used to toast the bride and groom at weddings. Although grapes and grape wines were introduced intoEthiopia some thirty years ago and today the countryside is dotted with vineyards, the preferred wine is still T'ej.

The extract of a native Ethiopian tree, the Gesho (similar to Hazel) imparts a bitter quality to the T'ej making it the ideal drink to complement the spicy food of the Ethiopians. The honey-sweet, bitter, dry tone of T'ej is enhanced by the food. Ethiopian meals often consist of pureed vegetable greens, lentils, peas, cabbages, bean sprouts, squash and meat - chicken, seafood and lamb. This is all served on a communal plate with injera, a sourdough, uncooked, unleavened bread. Injera is rolled and folded in the manner of a napkin and placed on the rim of the dinner plate or on a side plate.

Three years ago, Ethiopian nationals who have relocated in the Washington D.C. area, approached Anthony Aellen, a maker of Medieval English-style mead for nearly nine years at the Berrywine Plantation in Mt. Airy, Maryland. The Ethiopians were looking for a winemaker who would be willing to try and produce some T'ej similar to the drink they had enjoyed at home. It took Aellen nearly a year and a half to make a satisfying duplicate of T'ej. Berrywine Plantation is the only know manufacturer of T'ej in the United States and has been supplying the Red Sea Restaurant in Washington D.C. exclusively for the last three years.

Last year, Aellen produced close to a thousand gallons of T'ej. Since T'ej is a highly sensitive wine that does not travel well, Aellen suggests shipping the wine no more than a thousand miles until thecause of the instability is found.

Although in Ethiopia the supply of T'ej is abundant, in America it is very limited. The only other known manufacture of T'ej is at the London Winery of Ontario, Canada, which supplies variousrestaurants and liquor stores in the surrounding Washington, D.C. areas.

The Ethiopians have brought to this country a mead that is central to their culture and history. When glasses are filled with T'ej, they contain the same golden drink that was enjoyed by King Solomonand Queen Sheba.

**End of article**

TRADITIONAL ETHIOPIAN T'EJ

(Editor's note: We have included these traditional recipes as a point of interest and departure. Please note that no yeast is introduced into the must. While it may be that in Ethiopia there is a natural occurring wild yeast that will yield consistent and favorable results, such is not the case in the continental US. We would suggest therefore, that if you try this recipe that you follow the more conventional method of introducing a good wine or ale yeast. Dr. Caron further suggests that in all probability someone in the village, a shaman or wise woman maintains a "starter" culture whichis obtained by the meadmaker.)

UTENSILS NEEDED:

Medium cooking pot 3 gallon barrel or glass container

INGREDIENTS:

<>32 oz. honey 1 gallon water 1 1/2 cups woody hops DIRECTIONS: Mix water and honey in 3 gallon container. Set aside in a warm room. After 3 days, put 6 cups of honey water in the medium cooking pot. Bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes after adding woody hops. Set aside to cool. Add mixture to 3 gallon container. Let stand for 5 days. Remove hops using strainer. Cover container for 15 or 20 days. Store in cool location or put in bottles and refrigerate after filtering. Serves 6 to 12.
For more sweetness: add more hops to the mixture and cover in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days.

If bitter: add 1 cup honey and cover in airtight container for 20 to 25 days.

Variations of the recipe call for: medium criton - peeled, sliced, seedless coffee beans -roasted, cooled and ground orange peels --7 medium ginger --4 medium prunes --3 pounds ripe bananas --6 medium

The additional ingredients are added after the hops are removed and before storing the covered container for 15 to 20 days.

<>
(Ms. Davis is pursuing a degree in journalism at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia.)

  T'ej in America
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I find it very strange that they would suggest adding more hops "for more sweetness." Surely that is a mistake.

HD

[hiddendragonet]

Also found this-

http://www.gotmead.com/mead-research/tej-a...oney-beer.shtml

[SherryMaggio]

Very nice post with a ton of informative information. I really appreciate the fact that you approach these topics from a stand point of knowledge and information
instead of the typical “I think” mentality that you see so much on the internet these days.