Tella 2

Tella Beer Manufacture

The Tella had a smoky flavour, and a strong, but pleasant, sour note. It lacked something to make it very good - the smoky and sour notes poked out from a very bland base, rather than taking over. It was the colour of tea with a dash of milk, though in some places you can apparently get filtered Tella. The server kept it in large plastic buckets and poured it into bottles on order. We would guess that the alcohol content was 2 or 3 per cent at most.

The Tella is kept (and was presumably brewed) in large plastic dustbins or buckets. It was poured from here by the hostess with a large paper cup into bottles of various sizes (roughly one litre). From here you pour it into glasses at your table.

The Tella we tried was made from roasted barley malt (or possibly simply roasted barley), according to the lady who served us, whose mother was the actual brewer. The malt is mixed with water and exposed, so that it is fermented by yeasts naturally occuring in the air. The server didn't mention adding a starter from a previous brew, but it seems that the mixture is naturally exposed in any case. She said that fermentation continued for 'a few days'. Although we had heard that Tella was made from grains common in Africa, such as Teff, which is a drought-resistant tiny grain, or sorghum, our server said that her Tella was made with only barley, though other grains could be added. But it is possible that there is regional variation, of which our server was unaware.

The charge for the two bottles we and our guide drank was 8 Birr, about 30p, but we generously upped this to 20 Birr.