Food & Beer Culture

What do people eat with Tella in Ethiopia? The answer is injera. The sour, spongy flatbread made from teff serves as both plate and cutlery, topped with wat, spicy stews made with meat, lentils or vegetables. The heat of the spice blends pairs well with the drink's acidity and gentle bitterness.

Kitfo is a festive classic — minced raw beef mixed with spiced butter and mitmita, a hot spice blend. On fasting days, which are numerous in the Orthodox calendar, the cuisine shifts to plant-based platters like beyaynetu, a colorful mix of lentils, cabbage and vegetables.

Food is eaten by hand, and during a shared meal people feed each other bites. This gesture is called gursha and is seen as a sign of friendship and respect. If you're offered one, you should accept it gratefully. All of this has little to do with drinking — it's about sharing.

Respect is part of the conversation around alcohol too. Many Ethiopians, whether Orthodox Christian or Muslim, don't drink alcohol at all, and during fasting periods many others abstain as well. Tella and Tej have their place at festivals and visits, not as everyday habits. Festivals mentioned in this context include Meskel, Genna and Timkat.

The counterpart to beer is the coffee ceremony, the buna. The coffee is freshly roasted, brewed in a clay pot, and poured repeatedly into small cups. In the city, people meet at a Tej bet or over a St. George lager; in the countryside, it's at a neighbor's house, where Tella is poured.