Tej substitute

Best substitute

Mead (Honey Wine)

Use the same amount plus 2 dashes of aromatic bitters or a strip of lemon zest per cup as the tej you are replacing

Best for drinking alongside kitfo or doro wot

Close match

In a recipe, tej is supplying sweetness, acidity, alcohol and a faintly bitter herbal edge, mostly for slaking berbere into awaze or loosening a marinade. Semi-sweet mead is the closest thing you can buy, at 1:1, and a couple of dashes of aromatic bitters per cup approximate the missing gesho. For cooking, 1 cup dry white wine plus 1 tbsp honey is completely adequate and nobody will notice. Non-alcoholic, use 3 tbsp honey, 3/4 cup warm water and 2 tsp lemon juice per cup.

Other tej substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Dry White Wine + Honey
Different taste
Use 1 cup dry white wine + 1 tbsp honey for every 1 cup tej
The reliable kitchen version, using two things most people can get in five minutes.
What changes
Best for
awaze, marinades, deglazing, any cooked application
For cooking this is genuinely as good as the real thing. It is brighter and more acidic than tej and reads as grape rather than honey on the nose, but once it has been stirred into berbere and left to rest, the difference disappears. Use a crisp dry wine such as Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio rather than an oaked Chardonnay, whose vanilla and butter notes clash with berbere.
3Off-Dry Riesling or Moscato
Different taste
Use the same amount
A bought bottle to pour alongside the meal rather than cook with.
What changes
Best for
drinking with doro wot or beyaynetu, serving to guests, a wine pairing for spicy food
Off-dry, floral, low-tannin white wine is the right shape next to berbere, because the residual sugar cools the heat and the low tannin does not fight it, which is exactly what tej does at the table. It tastes grapey and floral rather than honeyed, and it has none of tej's bitterness, so it comes across as gentler and more polite. Serve it cool, not ice cold.
4Dry Hard Cider + Honey
Taste and texture differ
Use 1 cup dry cider + 2 tsp honey for every 1 cup tej
A close match on alcohol level and sweetness, with a bit of apple in place of the honey character.
What changes
Best for
awaze, marinades, drinking with a meal, a budget option
The strength and the sweet-tart balance land close to a light tej, and the apple is not out of place next to berbere. The obvious wrong note is the fizz, which is fine in a glass and disappears entirely once you stir it into a paste or a marinade. Use a dry cider rather than a sweet one and add the honey yourself, so you control how sweet it ends up.
5Honey + Water + Lemon Juice (Non-Alcoholic)
Different taste
Use 3 tbsp honey + ¾ cup warm water + 2 tsp lemon juice for every 1 cup tej
The alcohol-free version, hitting tej's sweetness and acidity without the ferment.
What changes
Best for
awaze, marinades, cooking for anyone avoiding alcohol, a soft drink alongside the meal
In awaze this works genuinely well, because what berbere needs is liquid, sugar and a little acid, and this supplies all three. As a drink it is honey lemonade, not tej: there is no alcohol, no fermented complexity and no bitterness, so it tastes simple and one-dimensional in a glass. Stir the honey into warm water first so it dissolves, then add the lemon.
6Nothing Matches It (The Honest Answer)
Different taste
Use Closest available: semi-sweet traditional mead plus 2 dashes of bitters for every cup of tej
The truthful position, which is that gesho is what makes tej taste like tej and gesho appears in nothing else on a Western shelf.
What changes
Best for
understanding what you are giving up, deciding whether to seek out real tej, drinking rather than cooking
For cooking, substitution is easy and the results are honestly indistinguishable. For drinking, there is no store-bought equivalent, because gesho gives tej a dry, tannic, faintly medicinal finish that no grape wine or commercial mead reproduces. Expect any substitute to be softer, sweeter and less bracing. If tej matters to you as a drink, an Ethiopian restaurant or grocer is the only real answer.

What is Tej?

Tej is an Ethiopian honey wine, fermented from honey and water with gesho, a bittering leaf and stem that does for tej roughly what hops do for beer, so one bottle carries sweetness, acidity and a dry herbal bitterness together, and it is served in a round-bottomed flask called a berele.

Cooking tips

For cooking, ignore the honey wine question entirely and think about sweetness and acidity, which is all tej is contributing. Dry white wine plus a spoonful of honey covers awaze and marinades completely.
Tej varies enormously in sweetness and strength between makers, from light and juice-like to dry and surprisingly potent. Taste your substitute and adjust the honey rather than trusting a number in a recipe.
Gesho is the missing piece, not the honey. Two dashes of aromatic bitters, or a wide strip of grapefruit or lemon zest steeped for ten minutes, gets you closer to tej than adding more honey ever will.
Do not reduce tej or mead hard in a pan. The sugar concentrates faster than the liquid does, so it catches and turns bitter and burnt well before you get a glaze. Simmer gently or add it near the end.
Serve any tej stand-in cool rather than ice cold. Chilling flattens honey aroma, which is most of what you came for, and it also mutes the sweetness that makes it work next to berbere.
If you are brewing tej rather than buying it, follow a tested recipe exactly as written. Do not reduce the acidity or change the ratios in any fermenting or preserving recipe, because those ratios exist for safety reasons; the National Center for Home Food Preservation publishes the tested guidance.

Frequently asked questions

What does tej taste like?

Sweet honey and orchard fruit up front, then a dry, slightly tannic, faintly medicinal bitterness at the finish that comes from the gesho. Good tej is far less cloying than the description suggests, and it is often stronger than it tastes, which catches people out. The style ranges widely from light and barely fermented to dry and quite alcoholic depending on the maker.

Is tej the same as mead?

Tej is a mead, in the sense that both are wines fermented from honey and water. The difference is gesho, the leaves and twigs of Rhamnus prinoides, which bitters tej the way hops bitter beer and gives it a dry, herbal finish that Western mead does not have. So mead is the closest substitute you can buy, and it will taste sweeter and rounder unless you add a bittering element.

Can I use tej instead of red wine in cooking?

In Ethiopian dishes, yes, and that is exactly what awaze traditionally uses. Elsewhere, be careful, because tej will sweeten the dish noticeably. If you are swapping it into a European braise, cut any other sugar in the recipe and be prepared for the sauce to taste more like a honey glaze than a wine reduction.

Can I leave tej out of awaze?

Yes. Awaze needs liquid, a little sweetness and a little acid, and tej is only one way to supply them. Dry red wine works, and so does water plus a teaspoon of honey and a squeeze of lemon. Rest the paste for twenty minutes afterwards either way, because that matters far more to the finished sauce than which liquid you chose.

Is there a non-alcoholic version of tej?

Not a commercial one you will find easily, but the honey, water and lemon juice mix above covers what tej does in a recipe and makes a pleasant drink in its own right. Be aware it is not tej, because there is no ferment and no gesho, so it reads as honey lemonade. For cooking it is a perfectly good substitute; for drinking, treat it as its own thing.

Related substitutes

More alcohol & vinegars substitutes

Tej substitute

Other tej substitutes

2Dry White Wine + Honey

3Off-Dry Riesling or Moscato

4Dry Hard Cider + Honey

5Honey + Water + Lemon Juice (Non-Alcoholic)

6Nothing Matches It (The Honest Answer)