Mead has been turning up on more menus lately, but it is not new. Not even close. It is one of the oldest fermented drinks humans have ever made, older than wine or beer by some accounts. The recipe at its heart could not be simpler: honey, water, and time.
So, is it sweet?
This is always the first question, and the honest answer is: not necessarily. People hear "honey" and picture syrup, but how sweet a mead ends up depends entirely on how it is made. Let the yeast eat most of the honey's sugar and you get a dry mead, crisp and surprisingly light. Stop it sooner and you get something sweeter. There is a whole spectrum, and plenty of meads land closer to a dry white wine than to dessert.
How it is made, simply
Mead is what you get when you ferment honey with water and yeast. The yeast turns the honey's sugar into alcohol, the same basic magic behind wine and beer. From there, makers play: add fruit and it becomes what is called a melomel, add spices and it becomes a metheglin. That is why no two meads taste quite alike, and why a berry mead and a dry traditional one can feel like completely different drinks.
Why it is worth a try
Mead tastes like nothing else on the shelf, with a soft, floral character from the honey that wine and beer simply do not have. It is a lovely bridge if you are curious about fermented drinks beyond the usual two, and it is genuinely good alongside a cheese or charcuterie board.
How to start
If you are not sure where to begin, ask for a dry or off-dry mead, which tends to be the friendliest first sip, or try it as part of a flight so you can taste a couple of styles next to each other. Go in curious. A few thousand years of people drinking the stuff is a decent endorsement.
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