The surprising elegance of mead

Have you ever tasted mead? Until just over a month ago, I had never tried it and I didn’t have the intention of ever doing so. Little did I know that when judging a recent beer competition, I would be ‘forced to’ taste and score mead in one of the afternoon sessions.

To be honest, it freaked me out a bit and by the look on the faces of my fellow beer judges around the table, they felt the same. A mix of anticipation and fear. Having had no previous experience of mead, I imagined it to be a thick, murky, overly sweet beverage, and I expected to have an overall quite unpleasant drinking experience. Oh how wrong I was.

Mead is not the same as beer, wine or cider, it’s in a category of its own. In fact, mead is made from fermenting honey – hence my belief that it would be cloyingly sweet. But as with beer, there are different types of mead and levels of sweetness, from sweet honey-forward mead to semi-sweet and dry mead, even with a sparkling quality like a fine Champagne. Often, mead can also feature additional ingredients such as fruits, berries, spices and herbs.

The flight of mead I had the chance to judge, although hesitantly at first, must have been of the dry variety, which has a crisp and refreshing drinkability. To my surprise, the ones I tried were incredible, with very subtle notes of honey backed up by a light fruitiness, and finishing like an elegant sparkling wine. The outstanding samples were given high scores across the board, by everyone at the judging table. I remember thinking, how did I not know about this before?

So don’t be scared of trying mead. Give it a go if you have the opportunity and you might be pleasantly surprised, just like I was.