'tej' being honey wine, is one of the primitive types of wines that are not crystal clear,rnbut cloudy, effervescent, containing residues of substrates, the fermenting yeasts andrnother microorganisms. Honey wines are prepared and consumed in many parts of thernworld. 'tej' is consumed widely in many parts of Ethiopia and is prepared from honey, orrnhoney and sugar, water and Gesho (Rhamnus prenoides). Roots, stems or leaves of plantsrnare added assuming atlincrease in the alcohol content and its potency. Like any otherrnspontaneous fermentation, 'tej', in its fermentation, relies on the microorganisms thatrninhabit the must from different sources. The substrates, utensils, equipment, and thernenvirorunent are responsible for the randomization of the micro flora. In such spontaneousrnfermentation and un-optimal physical and chemical conditions, variability in the productrnquality and stability becomes inevitable. So, investigating the variability and its extent inrnsome microbiological and chemical properties of 'tej' at the time it was ready forrnconsumption, was the objective of this study.rnAt consumption stage, 'tej' was highly loaded with yeasts and Lactic acid bacteria.rnMembers of different genera of yeasts, members of the bacterial genera of Lactobacillus,rnPediococcus, Streptococcus, Leuconostoc, were isolated and identified. Of the yeastrnisolates, species of Saccharomyces were dominant, followed by Kluyveromyces,rnDebal'O/11yces, Hansel1ula, Endomycopsis and Pichia specIes. Generally, thernhomofermentative (52.09%) were higher in counts than the heterofennentative( 47.91 %)rnlactic acid bacterial population.. All the isolates from the aerobic mesophilic bacterialrnplates were identified as members of Baci I/lls.rnAll the studied microbiological and chemical properties of 'te}' had significant variabilityrnamong samples within each vending house. Also, except yeast and lactic acid bacterialrnpopulations and fusel oil contents, all the other microbiological and chemical propertiesrnof 'te} , studied had statistically significant variability (AN OVA, p < 0.004 for all)rnbetween the mean values of all the vending houses. Generally, all samples also showedrnvariability in their total alcohol, total lipid, protein, and reducing sugar. Variability inrnfusel oil, titratable acidity and total carbohydrate was also noted. So, 'te}' at the time itrnwas ready for consumption had statistically significant variability both within andrnbetween vending houses in the microbiological and chemical properties.