Tej

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cmgreczyn

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Tuscaloosa, AL
while wasting time on wikipedia earlier this evening, i came across information about tej, a type of african mead. has anyone ever had this? or, does anyone have any experience brewing it?

it seems that tej recipes use a variety of buckthorn for its bittering qualities, like we use hops for our beer.

i'd appreciate anyone helping edify me about tej.

cheers,
craig
 
I love Tej, thats why I decided to start making meade! its mostly drank in the african Islamic world, because the quoran forbids drinking grain alcohol (not all alcohol like most think) but tej is made of honey! if you want to try it, go to any Ethiopian restaurant, they will almost always have some! Its essentially spiced sweet meade!
 
Ah, then I've had it at an Ethiopian restaurant
before. Ethiopian food is GREAT.
 
I used to live near DC too.

Meskerem and Dukem were the only ones I went to though.
 
I bought some from a local hippie co-op here in San Francisco. Too sweet for my taste but it was a good deal better than Chaucer's.
 
There's a great History of Ethiopian Resteraunts in that Detroit area, and therefore Tej....One of the commercial versions of Tej is made for this chain of resteraunts in Michigan..the Blue Nile.

The Blue Nile: Experience the Elegance of a Traditional Ethiopian Royal Feast

_contessa.img


There Tej is not overly dry, it's semi sweet like a piesporter to me.


Here's a recipe for a version of Tej I found online..

Tej

A popular drink in Ethiopia is Tej. This is a kind of mead (honey wine) with a slightly bitter taste. When making Tej, a plant is used which has the same effect as hops in beer. With the following recipe I make my own version of Tej. I use hops to produce the bitter taste effect. In Ethiopia, Tej is made with an open fermentation which starts spontaneously. I follow a method where I start with a sterile must (sterile by boiling) to which I add yeast (wine yeast). The result is a wine which is much clearer than the real Ethiopian Tej (which is not transparent) and the taste is a bit drier (less sweet). It is my favorite wine recipe.

Ingredients for 20 liter Tej:

* 5,4 kilo honey
* 50 gram hops (I use granules made of dried flowers of hop, which often can be found in shops that sell products for brewing beer)
* 3 teaspoons wine yeast (super yeast)
* 4 teaspoons yeast nutrients
* 2 cups strong tea
* water

Dilute the honey in boiling water. Boil for a little while, stir and remove the foam which forms on the top. Boil the hops in two or three liters of water for a couple of minutes. Mix all in a big bucket and add two cups of tea. Cover with a piece of cloth and let it cool down. Add yeast and yeast nutrients. Now stir two times per day for about 6 days. Then sieve the must through a double cotton cloth. Add boiled water (cooled down) until 20 liters. Keep it in a glass container under a water lock. When the fermentation has almost stopped (s.g. about 1.002) siphon one time. Bottle and keep it for a few month to mature. Often it turns out to be slightly sparkling wine because at the time of bottling there are still some sugars present.


I've learned to cook some Ethiopian dishes as well...though to do a feast, and especially to make the Injera bread..it's a pita. But I used to make a heck of a berbere spice blend that you add to redwine to make the cooking sauce for many of the meat and poultry dishes.
 
i'll have to check it out next time i'm dining in a city a bit more multi-cultural than tuscaloosa . . .

thanks for all the responses - i might try that recipe above, although it would be great to get the actual buckthorn leaves to use instead of the hops.
 
I just did some searching on the web and you can get the Buckthorn sticks and leaves (called gesho) from this website.
BRUNDO Organic Ethiopian Spices & Herbs : Home

Also, there are a couple of recipes for Tej at GotMead.com if you wanted to research them.

thanks dbuco
 
*drags an old thread out, blowing the dust off it....cough sneeze*

Time to do a little research and add this to the the upcoming project list
 
I've posted this in other forums, but thought it would be good to drop here.

This Recipe is from the book "Wild Fermentation" by Sandor Katz.

Equipment: 1 - brew bucket - primary fermenter; 1 - bucket or carboy - secondary fermenter; Cheesecloth; Big rubber bands or bungee cords.

To make 1 Gallon:
3 cups/750 ml of Honey
12 cup/3 lt of water

Process
1 - Mix water and honey in your brew bucket. Stir well until honey is thoroughly dissolved. Cover with cheesecloth or a dishtowel and tie it down with a bungee cord or big rubber band. Set the bucket aside in a warm room or porch for a few days so wild yeasts can get at it. Stir as often as you think of it.

2 - After 3-4 days (more if it's cold), the brew should be bubbly and fragrant. Once it's bubbly, transfer it to a secondary fermenter - straining out any additives you may have added for flavor (see below). Cap it with an airlock and leave it for 2-4 weeks.

3 - Once bubbling has stopped, drink and enjoy or bottle and let it age.

Possible flavorings: To be added during primary fermentation
1 qt fruit - berries, plums, etc.
Few handfuls of herbs - basil, lemon verbena, lemongrass, etc.
Anything really - in the book he makes a coffee-banana version, but it also tastes pretty good on it's own. Due to the use of wild yeasts, the flavor may vary from location to location.
 
If you go to Dogfishhead.com and buy the extreme brews book, there are a bunch of recipes Sam has included in it. One of them is for the version os Tej that he uses to make Bitches Brew.

I am brewing it this comming weekend.

Josh
 
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