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Fermentation Atlas

Alcoholic drinks from Ethiopia, Eritrea

Tej (Ethiopian honey wine)ጠጅ

Made in 5 steps over 10 days – 23 days. The longest step, second fermentation in the pot, stirred daily, takes 8–20 days (Fentie E.G. et al. 2020). Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Lactobacillus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step8–20 daysReported[fentie2020]Second fermentation in the pot, stirred daily
AciditypH 3.1–4.9Reported[fentie2020]Second fermentation in the pot, stirred daily
DocumentedAlcoholic drinks10 days – 23 daysFamily: Mead (base flow)More alcoholic drinksMore from Ethiopia

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedWhat goes in. No source gives amounts for this ferment.
honey (or honey + sugar)
water
gesho (Rhamnus prinoides) stems and leaves
Starter: spontaneous (wild yeasts; gesho and smoked pot flora)

Total time across the recorded steps: 10 days – 23 days

Start
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What changes: Honey is stirred into water, about 1 part to 3

Step 1 of 5
Mix honey and water
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Lactobacillus
Zymomonas
Kluyveromyces

Output: must.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

Variants

  • Berzhoney water, unfermented or barely fermented (WP)
  • Spiced tejginger, tamarind, khat, sado wood (Rhamnus staddo) (WP)

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Aksumite evidence at Beta Samati; royal drink before 1900s; now national drink (WP).

  1. [wp-tej] Wikipedia, Tej (outline only)wiki
  2. [tamang2016] Tamang, Watanabe, Holzapfel, "Review: Diversity of Microorganisms in Global Fermented Foods and Beverages", Front. Microbiol. 7:377, 2016paper
  3. [fentie2020] Fentie E.G. et al. 2020, Cereal- and fruit-based Ethiopian traditional fermented alcoholic beverages, Foods 9(12):1781paper
  4. [tej-200-samples] Study of 200 tej samples from 10 production units (alcohol and microbiome), cited in round 2 from a search summarypaper