THE CELEBRATED STORY Copyright © 201 The Honey Wine Company LLC. All rights reserved. 6 OF First edition published in 2013. HONEY WINE Published by The Honey Wine Company LLC San Francisco, California U.S.A. www.DiscoverHoneyWine.org ISBN 978-0-9893339-0-0 Hardback ISBN 978-0-9893339-1-7 Paperback ISBN 978-0-9893339-2-4 Ebook Edition THE H⬡NEY WINE COMPANY SAN FRANCISCO Second Dedication To three determined groups who operate Pleasant!words!are!a!honeycomb,!! in challenging environments: sweet!to!the!soul!! ____________ and!healing!to!the!bones.! ! O Proverbs!16:24! T’ej makers and t’ej bar owners in Ethiopia who and promoted pilsner style commercial beers. ደስ የሚያሰኝ ቃል የማር ወለላ ነው፤ continue to resist the onslaught of well financed ለነፍስ ጣፋጭ፣ Organizers and participants of The Mazer Cup in the ለዐጥንትም ፈውስ ነው። U.S.A. who have stuck by their mead regardless of what everyone else is drinking. ምሳሌ ፩፮፥፪፬ Independent farmers and beekeepers O ! around the world. Table of Contents CHAPTER IV. THE MOst SUstAINABLE LIBATION 48 The Buzz on Bees 49 Drink Honey Wine, Save the Forests 52 A Beeline for Urban Renewal 54 Foreword 1 Why You Should Keep It Local 56 Preface 3 CHAPAn Un-IndustrialTER V. A BEV ERARevolutionGE OF MY THICAL PROPORTIONS 6058 CHAPIntroductionTER I. AN ANCIENT LIBATION 119 Honeymoon in Babylon 60 The Rise of Culture 11 Honey Love 61 A Long Time Ago in a Field Far, Far Away 12 CHAPPoeticTer Inspiration VI. ‘Must ’ Knows ABOUT FERMENTATION 6664 African Origins? 13 Honey Wine in the Mediterranean 16 Honey Wine in Europe 19 Flowers Live in the Bouquet of Honey 6670 A Global Phenomenon 20 Holy Yeasties! 68 CHAPThe TGreaER II.t Honey GOLD WineEN W RecessionINE: CHARA CTER AND VARIETY 2522 Good Chemistry Means Good Wine Follow the Yellow Brick Road 71 Got Gesho? 72 Acquaint Yourself with Greatness 25 CHAPDo TryTER T hisVII. at THE Home REB IRTH OF HONEY WINE 7573 Love at First Sight 26 Misunderstanding Is Such Sweet Sorrow 27 AckNOWLEDGEMENts 79 No Tannins, Please 29 HOW TO ORDER HONEY WINE IN ANY LAND 80 A Wine for All Seasons 30 Mellowing Honey Wine with Fruit 31 The Spice of Life 32 A Grape Way To Serve Honey Wine 33 CHAPFor TtheER Love III. H ofO WBeer TO and SER HoneVE HyONEY Wine W INE 3635 OfFor Temperatures Your Dry Humor and Glasses 3638 FoodThe Pairings Semi-Sw eet Life 3839 Sweets to the Sweet 41 Honey Wine Mimosa 43 ForThe the Kentucky Mixologists Honeymoon 4344 Long Island Honey Wine 44 The Honeyrita 45 Tequila Honey-Rise 45 The Honey Wine Toddy 46 Foreword t’ej come to fruition. day by day, for five weeks, I watched my The worst thing about history is that we have to I soon named my and, just for fun, created a label. take other people’s word for it. No matter how vivid t’ej the account of something that happened decades or All About , or in my book, centuries ago, we’ll never really know what it looked Tej Mesob Across America: Ethiopian You can read about Ferenj Tej at my website, like, felt like, sounded like or smelled like to be there. Food in the U.S.A. But my interest has been . Now, thanks to The Nor what it tasted like. Some 2,000 years ago, a lucky just t’ej Honey Wine Company, you can learn about all types of Aksumite discovered t’ej, the wonderful Ethiopian mead in The , a lively honey wine, and he probably didn’t even know what Celebrated Story of Honey Wine and readable little book loaded with information and he’d just tasted. I say 2,000 years because the earliest colorful images. Honey wine may well be the oldest written record of t’ej dates back that far. But it may well fermented drink in the world, and people certainly have been – in fact, almost certainly was – even longer ago. documented it. imbibed in it long before recorded history first Aksum was the great ancient kingdom that occupied the is a valuable book northern portion of modern Ethiopia, most of modern The Celebrated Story of Honey Wine that brings together a world of information that will Eritrea, and portions of Arabia; and the Aksumites delight both mead maniacs and the more general wine left behind enough artifacts and inscriptions for us to understand a fair bit about their habits. We know your side as you read it. they ate lentils and peas, two items familiar from the aficionado. Just be sure to have a glass of honey wine at Ethiopian dinner table, and that they used teff, probably to make injera, the Ethiopian traditional bread. We also University of Pittsburgh know they drank . t’ej Harry Kloman t’ej, but alas, that moment of personal history is lost to time. I beganI wish Imaking could remember it myself at the home first eighttime Iyears tasted ago with honey from local markets and with gesho, the woody t’ej, from Ethiopian markets in hops that flavors the 1 2 Washington, D.C. The first batch fermented well, and Preface I suppose they had lots of time exploring common t’ej. On the other hand, put a Habesha and a curious Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published by Harriet oenologistinterests because together Amanuel in a room knew for of a Hilko’s few seconds, affinity notfor Beecher Stowe, as was Childhood by Leo Tolstoy. The several days, and the topic of would not have to PalaceIn 1852, of Westminster opened in Great Britain a month t’ej wait for awkward silence1. or so before Napoleon III ascended to the throne and I would meet Hilko, along with his wife, Andrea, and Burmese War was fought over eight months, while the their two sons, for dinner at a restaurant in downtown Battlethe Presidency of Gur Amba of occupiedthe French just Republic. the better The part Second of one Stellenbosch the next day. Hilko took up my invitation day. and was on a plane to Ethiopia to research t’ej production within weeks. Shortly after his visit, Hilko began producing his version of honey wine under the is The Celebrated Story of Honey Wine You must be wondering, “why the history lesson?” This Solms Delta label. , not Jeopardy category, “1852.” coffee. It’s an internationally recognized biosphere for one American priest. In addition to these global Kafa forest is the origin of the eponymous beverage, Well, 1852 was a very special year for me, for you, and reserve to conserve wild coffee genes, and an ecosystem under heavy threat of deforestation. This is a relatively Langstroth patented the modern frame beehive that lush part of Ethiopia, but I took particular notice of wouldhappenings, revolutionize it was honeythe year production Rev. Lorenzo globally. Lorraine slash and burn activities on the long drive from Addis The year is 2009, and I am driving in the mountain rain Theto Jimma percent and intoof native the town forest of Bonga cover inin Kafa. Ethiopia has African grape winemaker. We had met just weeks shrunk from 40% to the low single digits within a beforeforests throughof Kafa ina randomsouthwestern stranger Ethiopia I met withone nighta South at century. This is mainly driven by the rural population a bar in the town of Stellenbosch, South Africa. The stranger, whose name I came to know as Amanuel, was years alone. an Eritrean student at the University. Upon hearing increases; from 35 million to 90 million over the last 35 my interest in wine, Amanuel would tell me, and those with us, about a winemaker named Hilko Hegewisch, with whom he recently shared a hospital room. 1 Amanuel magically reappeared in the living room of a shared apartment in Cape Town where I stayed during New Years 2011. 3 4 2009 was pressure to deforest, and the near universal useWhat of I pre-Langstrothwitnessed in Kafa traditional during beehivesthose few (with days noin clearA self-enforcing for corn, coffee cycle andof poverty other crops.causes Ironically, the Kafa arealess internal frame structures). The long bamboo or wood residents to cut more trees to sell as firewood and to cylindrical enclosures are hung from tall trees, and honey production results, not to mention the carbon dioxidetrees means emissions less floralthat resultforage when for bees carbon so evenstored less in enclosures and turn them into beehives. trees is released upon burning. typically, wild bees may inhabit five out of 10 of these This question crossed my mind and took hold of me each annually. The beekeepers have to crush the combs toThese extr traditionalact the honey, hives so yieldthe bees only will 15 poundshave to putof honey their energy into producing new combs, not honey, the ever since: Could it be that the lowly 1852 invention by the Rev. Langstroth could reverse multiple economic, the beekeeper extracts the honey through centripetal incomeenvironmental and more and equitablesocial ills? gender More distribution honey from of forcefollowing and year. returns But withthe originala “modern” frame 1852 comb frame to hive, the modern frame hives results in more household box children. that income – with the resultant benefits accruing to hive; yields on frame hives average 75 pounds Larger income on its own may or may not lead to less per year incredibly raising household income five deforestation, but in this case, the beekeepers are keenly fold. aware that the pollen for their honey comes from tree out of the beekeeping business, a relatively high income earningWith traditional activity hives, even women with low-yieldingin Kafa are effectively traditional cut that lays the golden eggs.