Ethiopian Traditional Alcoholic Beverages Compositions and Consumers

Ethiopia is endowed with history, ethnicity, and cultural and crop genetic diversity. Traditional alcohol beverages are widely consumed among different ethnic groups of the country as a prominent part of the local traditions of major social events including public holidays, wedding, funerals and other forms of festivities. Among several home brewed alcohols in Ethiopia, Tej and Areki are the most preferred drinks for festivities. However, these drinks are not sufficiently studied. Besides, there are growing concerns on hygienic handling of raw materials, production procedures and qualities of the final products and rise of alcoholism. In this book described the current traditional alcohol consumer characters through the analyses of alcohol strength, methanol level and other additives in Tej and Areki alcoholic drinks from human health perspective.