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Ingredients of Tej and Tella
Tej is made from honey, and is a kind of mead. Some cheap Tej makers replace some of the honey with sugar. According to our informants, grain is not used at all in Tej.
Tella is made from grain, usually barley, and is a kind of beer. Other grains may be used in Tella, such as teff, millet and sorghum. It is possible that the content of Tella varies by region, but around Addis Ababa, the capital, barley is the central ingredient.
According to our informants, both Tej and Tella are naturally fermented, in the way that Lambic is in Belgium, by being exposed to the air and infected by naturally occuring yeasts. It is possible that a starter is added from a previous batch, but this was not mentioned as a part of the process by our informants. In any case, the same yeasts would presumably be in the air as in the starter, and the mixture is exposed as part of the process of production.
To add flavour, 'hops' are added. Our informants used the English word 'hops', but it turns out that the ingredient is actually the dried leaves of the Shiny-leaf Buckthorn, Rhamnus prionoides.
All of the potential ingredients can be found in markets in Ethiopia.
