Everything You Have Ever Wanted To Know About Mead

The complexity of wine and the flavor medley of beer, mead is one hell of a drink. Ever wondered why the Vikings loved to sip this honey drink from their horns? Give it a try, and you will discover the diverse notes and creativity of his beverage. You will fall head-over-heels. But before you try a mead, let us enlighten you about it.

Everything You Have Ever Wanted To Know About Mead
[ image: pexels by moussa idrissi ]

Up close and personal with mead

An alcoholic beverage, mead is prepared by fermenting honey diluted with water. Its alcoholic strength ranges from 6% ABV to 22% ABV and even more. It is flavored with spices, honey, and a whole lot of other things to give it a distinct flavor. Most bottles are non-carbonated, and all the mead variants are gluten-free.

You can find sweet meads and fully dry meads. Most meads are between these two markers. Furthermore, meads are spices, barrel-aged, still, carbonated, fruity, strong, weak, cold, hot, and the list goes on. All in all, with meads, you will have a diverse range of flavors, notes, and tastes.

The glorious history of meads

Honey wine or mead is the oldest alcoholic beverage made on this Earth. Its history dates back to 4,000 years. Enjoying love and favorability across various cultures and continents (including Africa, Asia, and Europe), mead had found lovers in Vikings, Egyptians, Greeks, Mayans, and Romans.

Trying to trace the exact origin and history, some found evidence of its fermentation in a Chinese pottery vessel from 7000 B.C.E.

The origin of mead is serendipity, which we should be thankful for. The foragers might have gulped the liquid contained in a beehive flooded with rainwater that may have got fermented with airborne yeast.

Whatever happened, we all got lucky.

Are you getting started on mead?

If your fascination with meads is beginning to take wings, let us tell you what you should expect.

The best idea is to start with traditional meads sans spices or fruits. The meads with enhanced complexities of honey with a hint of aromatics like floral or earthy are a good place to start. The meads that carry white wine-like fermentation-born aromas are also great for beginners.

The meads without any added flavors give you the real taste of fermented honey just with a hint of aromatics that complement their flavor. Traditional meads set the right tone for you as you prepare to graduate to other meads. Traditional meads are sweet or dry or maybe something lingering in between.

Once you unearth the raw flavor of honey mead and develop a taste for it, try meads with added embellishments.

Try fruit or spice meads as they bring in a blast of flavors. While apple, berry, and grapes emerge as the most common and liked fruit meads, make it a point to try the more exotic variants, like meads with mango, chipotle peppers, hops, and cacao nibs. These meads flaunt a perfect poise between honey and added fruity flavors, creating something very distinct.

Where to get the mead?

Looking forward to embarking on the mead adventure? Let us share some good news. As meads are getting popular with each passing day, finding meads is a cakewalk now. Today, every state has meaderies where meads are finely crafted.

Search on Google, and you will find a meadery around you. If not, you can always buy mead online. Several meaderies have websites that make meads available for mead lovers spread across the world.

Meads are truly exotic. For ages, they have been tantalising the taste buds of the world. If your palate is still unfazed with their allure, it’s high time for you to indulge in their flavors. Now that you know ample about them, select any mead and unleash their richness.