What Is Gesho? The Ethiopian Brewing Plant Explained
Gesho is an Ethiopian buckthorn plant used like hops to bitter and ferment the traditional drinks tej and tella. Here is what it is.
African Stores Editorial Team
The short answer
Gesho is a species of buckthorn native to Ethiopia and Eritrea, used much like hops in brewing. The dried twigs and leaves are added to the traditional drinks tej, a honey wine, and tella, a home-brewed beer, where they bitter the drink and help it ferment. Gesho itself is simply a plant, valued for the clean, bittering character it lends rather than being eaten on its own. In the UK you can find dried gesho at African food shops, which you can look up near you on African Stores.
What to remember
- Gesho is a buckthorn plant native to Ethiopia and Eritrea.
- It is used much like hops, to bitter drinks and help them ferment.
- The dried twigs and leaves flavour the traditional drinks tej and tella.
- It gives these drinks their characteristic bitterness.
- Tej and tella are alcoholic and for adults aged 18 and over; gesho itself is just a plant.
Few things say Ethiopian and Eritrean hospitality quite like a jug of tej or a gourd of tella shared at a celebration, and behind that unmistakable taste is a humble plant: gesho. It is the quiet workhorse of the home brew, the ingredient that turns honey and water, or grain and water, into something with backbone and bite. For families keeping these traditions alive far from home, a bundle of dried gesho twigs is a small but vital link to a very old craft.
There is real heritage held in this plant. Brewing tej and tella with gesho is a skill passed down through generations, part of weddings, holidays and welcomes, and the bitterness gesho brings is as familiar and expected as the sweetness of the honey. To track down gesho in Britain is to keep that craft going, and to serve a homemade brew made the proper way is to share a piece of home. That is the quiet importance of one modest plant.
What Gesho Actually Is
Gesho is a plant, a species of buckthorn native to Ethiopia and Eritrea, and it plays the same role in traditional brewing that hops play in beer. It is the twigs and leaves that matter: these are dried and then added to ferments, where they contribute bitterness and help the drink ferment cleanly. On its own gesho is not a food you eat; it is a brewing herb, prized for what it does to a drink rather than as an ingredient in a meal.
What gesho brings is a distinctive, clean bitterness that balances the sweetness or the grain in the drinks it flavours. Just as hops give beer its characteristic edge and keep it from being cloying, gesho gives Ethiopian and Eritrean brews their signature bite. It is a defining flavour of the region's drink traditions, and it is very much a shared heritage across both Ethiopia and Eritrea, where the same plant and the same brewing methods appear.
The plant grows as a hardy shrub or small tree, and it is the dried parts, rather than anything fresh, that go into the brew. Because it is dried before use, gesho travels and stores well, which is part of why it has remained the classic bittering agent for these home brews for so long. It is a good example of how a single local plant can become the essential ingredient behind a whole family of drinks, doing a job that no simple substitute quite matches.
How Gesho Is Used in Tej and Tella
Gesho is central to two famous drinks. The first is tej, a honey wine, where gesho is added to a mixture of honey and water and left to ferment; the plant bitters the sweet base and helps drive the fermentation, giving tej its balance between honeyed sweetness and a gently bitter finish. The second is tella, a home-brewed beer made from grains, where gesho again provides the bittering and fermenting role, much as hops do in a conventional beer.
The plant is used in a couple of forms. Whole or roughly broken dried twigs and leaves can be steeped in the brew, and gesho is also sold ground into a powder for the same purpose. Either way, the aim is the same: to release the bittering compounds into the ferment so the finished drink has depth, balance and the proper Ethiopian and Eritrean character. The amount and the length of steeping are matters of judgement and taste, and experienced brewers develop a feel for how much gesho a batch needs, much as a cook learns to season by eye.
It is worth being clear that both tej and tella are alcoholic drinks for adults aged 18 and over. Gesho itself, though, is simply the plant that makes them possible, the brewing herb at the heart of the process. Without it, tej would be closer to a plain honey water and tella would lack its familiar bitter backbone, so for anyone brewing the traditional way it is not an optional extra but the key ingredient.
Why Gesho Matters in Ethiopia and Eritrea
Gesho matters because the drinks it makes matter. Tej and tella are woven into celebration and hospitality across Ethiopia and Eritrea, appearing at weddings, religious holidays and gatherings, and the craft of brewing them at home is a source of real pride. Gesho is the ingredient that makes an authentic home brew possible, so keeping it stocked is part of keeping the tradition. Its role sits naturally within the wider world of Ethiopian food and drink, where so much is made from scratch with care.
For the Ethiopian and Eritrean community in Britain, being able to buy gesho means being able to brew the proper way rather than making do. Home brewing is often a communal affair, tied to preparing for a wedding, a holiday or a large family gathering, and the flavour of the finished drink is a point of quiet pride for the person who made it. Gesho is what makes that possible. It is a plant that carries a whole tradition on its dried twigs, and that is why people seek it out.
Where to Buy Gesho in the UK
Gesho is a specialist ingredient, so the place to find it is an African food shop, particularly one serving Ethiopian and Eritrean customers. It is usually sold dried, either as bundles of twigs and leaves or ground into a powder, and it keeps well, so a single purchase goes a long way. Shops that cater to the Horn of Africa community are the most reliable source, as they carry the brewing staples that general supermarkets do not. You can find African food stores near you to see which shops nearby stock it, and it is always worth asking the shopkeeper, who will often know exactly what you need for tej or tella.
Frequently asked questions
What is gesho?
Gesho is a species of buckthorn plant native to Ethiopia and Eritrea, used much like hops in brewing. The dried twigs and leaves are added to the traditional drinks tej and tella, where they provide bitterness and help the drink ferment. On its own gesho is a brewing herb rather than a food.
What is gesho used for?
Gesho is used to bitter and ferment traditional Ethiopian and Eritrean drinks. It is central to tej, a honey wine, and tella, a home-brewed beer, giving both their characteristic bitterness and helping them ferment, in the same way hops work in beer. It is not usually eaten on its own.
What does gesho taste like?
Gesho contributes a distinctive, clean bitterness rather than being tasted directly. In the drinks it flavours, it balances the sweetness of honey in tej or the grain in tella, giving them depth and a gently bitter finish. It is that bittering edge, much like the effect of hops, that defines its character.
Is gesho alcoholic?
No, gesho itself is just a plant, the dried twigs and leaves of a buckthorn. The drinks it is used to make, tej and tella, are alcoholic and are for adults aged 18 and over, because gesho helps them ferment. The plant on its own contains no alcohol; it is simply the brewing ingredient.
Where can I buy gesho in the UK?
Gesho is a specialist brewing ingredient, so African food shops serving Ethiopian and Eritrean customers are the place to buy it, usually dried as twigs or as a powder. General supermarkets rarely stock it. African Stores lists African and Caribbean food shops across the UK, so you can find one near you that stocks gesho.
