Mead Me For Drinks

Are you looking for a break from the routine of beer, wine and your usual liquors at cocktail time? Well, friends, one of the oldest fermented beverages known to humanity just might be the hottest new thing in your glass.

Mead is an ancient beverage, appearing in the myths and legends of the Romans, Norse, Celts and others. No self-respecting Viking would go a week without quaffing a few tankards, and it was an absolute must-have for even the smallest Druid ritual or gathering. If you've got any Wiccan friends, odds are they've got a bottle stashed away somewhere for Beltane.

Unless you hang out at renaissance festivals a lot, you quite likely have never tasted mead. If that's true, you're in for a treat. Even if you've tried the "big-name" meads like Chaucer's, there is a whole world of small-house meads out there that you need to explore.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with Chaucer's, by the way. In fact, I've drunk more of it than any other brand, and never been displeased. But it's human nature to seek out variety, and when I went looking for mead variety I was staggered by the number of offerings.

Mead is made from honey, one of the oldest food sources still consumed. There are numerous ways to get from the raw product to the finished mead. Most common in ancient times was boiling, which was simple and quick but left a bitter edge to the mead. Nowadays, the most common method combines a bit of beermaking and a bit of winemaking, with a mixture of honey and water being brewed, then fermented with the addition of wine or beer yeast.

Now, you could spend years just tasting the "straight" meads from various meaderies, but allow me to lay upon your palate yet more opportunities. Since mead is such an essentially simple creature, it invites experimentation with flavors and methods. One of the most popular is melomel, which is fruited mead in any of a spectrum of flavors. If you'd like a little grape wine with your mead, you'll want to seek out pyment. And if you want to be a proper Saxon warrior you'll fill your tankard with bracken, a mixture of mead and beer.

What you can expect as far as taste in your glass of mead can vary widely. There are sweet meads and dry meads, just as with other wines. However, there is another dimension to the flavor entirely imparted by the limitless variety of honeys.

Honey, as you may know, takes on flavors and aromas related to the sort of flower the bees that made it were visiting. Thus, meads from different areas of the country, and from different spots on the calendar, will have different flavors. Unlike wines, in which a single strain of grapes may be cultivated for centuries, mead relies on the efforts of our little winged buddies to bring together a pleasing panoply of taste elements.

Unless you've got a large liquor store in your town (or an esoteric store with a package license) you might run into a spot of bother trying to find mead, especially anything other than the major brands.

A great place to find local meads is through your local home-brewing supply store. Many beermakers make mead, also, and a short chat with a friendly clerk or some of your fellow customers should get you pointed in the right direction. Of course, even these searches may not bear fermented fruit ... or maybe you're the shy sort who doesn't like accosting strangers.

This is where the Internet comes into play, provided you live in one of the forward-thinking states that allow you to order spirits that way. (Even if your state has importation restrictions, mead is made in every state in the U.S. Be persistent!)

Meadmakers compete just as winemakers and brewers do, and looking for a maker who's won a fair share of awards is one way to find the good stuff. A track record also helps, as does a goodly variety of flavor offerings.

In light of these, I am proud to present for your consideration my new pals at Redstone Meadery. Their flagship, the Traditional Mountain Honey Wine, is the Gold Award winner among traditional meads at the 2003 International Mead Festival. I found it to be crisp and light, with a complex sweetness that never got heavy. I had two mead "virgins" taste it, and both of them are now after me to order it by the case.

Of course, you can't stop with just that one, so allow that scroll wheel on your mouse to take you through the full list of available mead, melomel and pyment. There are flavors for every palate, and they won't break your wallet.

I've tried the Black Raspberry Nectar and Sunshine Nectar so far, and both of them were truly great. The nectars are lightly carbonated, with a mead base and added fruit puree. If you've got a deck, or even a sunny spot in the back yard, you need a few bottles of this to keep cold for a relaxing break after a hard day of dodging chores.

Whether you seek out your mead locally or hunt it online, you owe it to yourself to expose your palate to this ancient drink. You won't be sorry!

Got a question? Comment? Topic you'd like to see covered? Drop me a line anytime! Large cash grants, cases of mead and professions of undying love are always accepted.