Yebunna T'ej (Coffee-Flavored Honey Wine), part II

The honey/water/yeast mixture has been sitting in the kitchen for three days, and the house has had a delicate aroma of honey and bread.  

this is what it looks like after sitting for 3 days

Today was the day I was to move onto the next step, the addition of the woody hops (gesho).  There are two forms of gesho: gesho inchet (the sticks) and gesho kitel (the leaves).  It seems that each has its own character and, therefore, imparts a different character to the t'ej, though I also found recipes that called for both.  Since the book didn't specifically mention which form to use, I decided to go with both.  

gesho inchet

gesho kitel

I measured out a small portion of the brew into a separate saucepan, then added the gesho:

appetizing, no?

stirring it did not really improve the visual

From here, it was just a matter of bringing it to a boil and letting it simmer for a bit.

It may be worth offering a confession here: I don't drink.  I usually don't even like the smell of alcoholic beverages, especially beer (my daughters, on the other hand, are always keen for a sniff of whatever beer Daddy's drinking; his goal is to raise a couple of beer snobs).  So I was quite surprised by how good this smelled bubbling away.  Probably because it's twigs and leaves, it's very earthy (albeit I keep thinking there's the faintest undertone of cannabis) and there's none of the hoppiness that I associate with beer.  I can't say it smells like something I'm hankering to drink, but it's much more pleasant than I thought it would be.  

after simmering

After it cooled, I added it to the mixture that wasn't heated:

Now I let it sit for another 5 days before moving on to the next step!  Though it'll have to be 6 days, because I have to go to Rochester, NY for work and will be flying back next Wednesday night.  

I also got another shipment of ingredients in from Brundo and have two more recipes waiting to be made!