Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Fermentation Atlas

Alcoholic drinks from Ethiopia

Tella (talla)ጠላ

smoky, bitter, brown home beer. Made in 6 steps over 21 days – 33 days. The longest step, add roasted maize and ferment again (difdif), takes 10–20 days (Fentie E.G. et al. 2020) and runs at 20–25 °C (Fentie E.G. et al. 2020). Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Lactobacillus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step10–20 daysReported[fentie2020]Add roasted maize and ferment again (difdif)
Temperature20–25 °CReported[fentie2020]Add roasted maize and ferment again (difdif)
DocumentedAlcoholic drinks21 days – 33 daysMore alcoholic drinksMore from Ethiopia

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceMakes about 25–28 L of tella (Fentie et al. 2020).
1 kgGesho powder[fentie2020]
0.5 kgMalt flour (bikil) · Barley soaked, sprouted under banana leaves, sun-dried and ground[fentie2020]
5 kgBaked kita bread · Millet, sorghum or teff flatbread, broken into pieces[fentie2020]
10 kgRoasted ground maize (asharo)[fentie2020]
30 LWater[fentie2020]
Starterback-slop/ spontaneous with gesho

Total time across the recorded steps: 21 days – 33 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Smoke from olive wood cleans and scents the clay pot

Step 1 of 6
Smoke-clean clay pot
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Lactobacillus

Output: prepared pot.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

smoke reduces flora, adds aroma

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

History and sources

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

Roots back to Aksumite times; Beta Israel used tella for kiddush (WP).

  1. [wp-tella] Wikipedia, Tella (outline only)wiki
  2. [fentie2020] Fentie E.G. et al. 2020, Cereal- and fruit-based Ethiopian traditional fermented alcoholic beverages, Foods 9(12):1781paper