How to make Tej (Ethiopian honey wine) – Start to finish
How to make Tej (Ethiopian honey wine) – Start to finish
Tej is a honey wine made in Ethiopia and Eritrea, flavored with a shrub called gesho. Tej is floral, herbal, sweet, and effervescent. Lactic acid bacteria give it a slight funk and a bit of a sourness. Our tej recipe borrows from the scientific literature to try to replicate a traditional recipe with “modern” meadmaking practices – primarily:…
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Tej is cloudy
So this doesn't feel very much like tej to me, this feels very much like a sour buckthorn mead/saisson. Tej is not meant to be that complicated. At it's purest, its honey, water and gesho, no yogurt, no yeast, no sugar ,no erythritol. And the gesho twigs are integral to most tejs. You may have gave up on the twigs too early in the process because I use the entchet and kitel and my tej comes out just fine. I typically would not use yeast in mine but because I am preparing it for friends as much as I am preparing for myself, my process has to be somewhat sterile, so I boil the twigs and leaves to kill the natural wild cultures/bacteria that you would find in traditional tej which is usually a cold process and not a "sterile" process. That boiling can also kill off the natural yeast found in the honey as well. I used sterile sachet bags to keep the twigs and sticks separately contained within the mixture but allows for the gesho to incorporate into the flavor profile.
Bruh i had tej the other day at an Ethiopian restaurant the drink was so good with a taste almost like a plum wine
Great work and a perfect step by step explanation … originally from the birth place of Tej never have tried to make it lol but now I definitely want to try to make it after I see your video
Thanks!
Cool interpretation of Tej! The leaves/poweder gesho is more so used for tella while sticks are for Tej. Have you tried washing and then splitting the sticks as opposed to using it whole? Also in second ferment, try to boil the cleaned, dried, and split gesho with some of the tej, wait to cool and then add back 🙂
not even close, stick to budweiser
I’m sure you trying, but let the people of Ethiopia 🇪🇹 Tell it. We don’t add any yogurt or yeast. I don’t know we’re you find that or told you that’s how u make it but it’s all the way you make it is WRONG 😑.
You can get the same "mold" from making kombucha beer which is very similar to tej haveing the yeast and becteria culture I'm sure people mistake the scobi like growth on the top for mold I'll have to try tej now after my booch is done
You can buy Tej here in Dallas, Texas
Real cool!
Use Gesho stick instead of gesho leaf. If you use leaf, the test will be sour
I wonder, Can you make a Homemade Cola ?
This is not Ethiopian tej🙅🏾♂️, Ethiopian tej is made of honey water and gesho!!!!
I appreciate the effort but this is not the right way to do it.
What’s the foam in the demijohn before filling it up?
I made your Tej and a traditional Tej and brought them to our local brewing club, your version won hands down except for the one man from Ethiopia, he like the one made with sticks best and said it was just like home.
Great video, as always. A question and a comment. The question: if I want to add erythritol in place of sugar but I would typically add, say 4 oz of sugar to back sweeten a wine, how much more erythritol do I need to add to create the same sweetness? Thanks
The comment: to add additional sourness you might "simply" malt a cup of wheat berries (get them to sprout over say, 3 or 4 days) and then pour a gallon of water over the berries and allow the sprouted berries to sit in the water. The water will be full of lacto bacteria and you can use that to sour a mead or indeed, any drink. This "tea" was known as rejuvelac back in the 60's.
I started my batch on the 13th. This is the ugliest batch I have made and it looks like a lava lamp, is that normal?
I was looking at the leaves, the reviews are horrible. What did you think of the final product and did you have enough in 1 bag. It is only 4 ounces
I am making Tej again tomorrow, my first batch was wonderful. I used the sticks, boiled them first for 20 minutes and it was a hit with my friends, which is why I am making more.
There is a lot of variation in the taste of Tej because there are many recipes for making Tej. I have heard many stories about people not liking the earthy/musky taste of Tej. I did not like the overall taste of Tej, from the samples I had. Some were too earthy. Some were too sweet. However, I could tell there was something underneath that would potentially taste good. I've made Tej for the past 6 years and never seen/read the need to add yogurt prior to this video. That addition may take your version into the experimental category instead of traditional Tej. I've stuck to the traditional recipe of gesho, honey, and water. The only difference is I add 2g of Lalvin D47. The foaming (mold) happens 100% of the time. If back sweetening is needed, I suggest using that same honey that was initially used. That keeps the recipe closer to the traditional way it would have been made. My Tej won Best of Show for a State Fair Amatuer Homebrewing competition and most recently 2nd in a larger competition in the Specialty/Experimental/Historical Mead categories. After my current batch finish aging, I might send a sample in to the Mead Stampede competition. 🙂
I previously used Brundo's Gesho with good results. Maybe you received an old pack of Gesho. Brundo is located in Oakland where there is a lot of Tej brewing. I would imagine they have a good turnaround time on their product.
Bottled about 5 weeks ago, I tried a small sample plastic bottle I use to test pressure. Not good! The only thing different I did was convert it to a 3-gallon version.
30 gm gesho leaves
, 3.6 lbs honey, 7.5oz Erythritol (back sweeten), and 3 oz priming sugar. Any chance letting it sit will change it? It came out 7.2 ABV. It doesn't have the test of jet fuel like new mead, or sour like a bitter beer. I wish I had a greater vocab or culinary range to aid in describing it. Tea-like but without the tannins. Maybe a lot more sweetener might have helped. Too bad, I wanted to show this off to friends.
The dancing fruit music in the background caught me unawares, thought i was absolutely loosing it.
It would help if you had someone that's Ethiopian try it.
You more then welcome to send me one of you have one left. 😁
I did try your recipe, by the way. I added more Sugar than you did.
Now I'm wondering after watching for a second time how the Gesho would taste as a hops substitute in a SMASH beer. Sounds like a project for the upcoming summer. Maybe using some Maris Otter.
Why are all the mead making YouTube channels in my state though?
Everything that shouldn’t be added in it is😳 it looks good but not something I will try.🙏🏾
Its just funny because TEJ means milk in hungarian. SO i can say i drink Tej every day
It freaks my husband out how much sanitizer remains in your bottle. They always let their container dry after adding the sanitizer and he gives me grief every time.
I just finished make Tej with the sticks, it tasted like sticks day 10 when I removed them but it was really tasty about 10 days later, the stick taste was gone. I did simmer the sticks for 30 minutes first. Now I want to try it with the leaves. Thanks for the recipe.
Tej(ጠጅ) is our traditional drink made from honey and gesho(leaf and stem). The traditional way of brewing Tej is kind of cold process. We don't use any kind of yeast. The gesho stem is washed and sun dried. It will be added in the MUST on the 3rd day of brewing. It will be left for fermentation (even though we don't pitch yeast) for 3 to 4 weeks. We don't use hydrometer to measure the potential alcohol… we back sweetened the MUST after testing the Tej….. Luckily I tried to make Tej using Red Star yeast and gesho leafs a week ago. The OG was 1.070… will see how the FG will be and the Tej test and color
I will have to give this mead a shot! I wish I snagged one of your bottles cause it was legit really enjoyable! It was so much fun making a guest appearance on your channel! 😀
What's a vegan to do, to get that funk?
Love the intro!
What’s the alchohol percentage on this drink?!
Is this Pierre Kleinhouse design in the wild?!
I was recently wondering if I have been making an assumption or am I accurate about Potassium Sorbate and Metabisulfite. Do they stop all living organisms in brews or only yeast from growing? Can you still create vinegar, or have any other type of infection?
How are you avoiding milk solids when you're adding the yogurt? I tried using coconut milk and it didn't turn out great, it definitely fermented well but it was a mess
Yay for inviting Fay! Thanks for making this video. Thoroughly enjoyed it!
Why is this channel so big and still responding to comments mad respect
either she is tall or you are short?! spill the beans BC lol
YAY!
My father adores Ethiopian food, so I've had Tej before. Very enjoyable.
Excellent content as always.