Mead for Delivery or Pickup

Mead is an alcoholic drink made by fermenting honey. Mix honey and water and ferment it with yeast, and you have yourself a delicious drink. Mead can also be flavored with other things like spices, fruits, and grains. Mead is a bit stronger than beer and has a similar variety of flavors and styles where people can get creative with making it. The drink is often referred to as honey wine, but mead is a category in and of itself.

You can choose from a variety of meads:

Traditional Meads: Traditional meads are made from the basic ingredients honey, water, and yeast. The flavor of honey will truly stand out in the traditional mead. The types of honey that can be used also affect the delicate flavor. Bees that have fed on nectars from peaches or blackberries will have their own unique essence. These meads don't have any additional ingredients and have a standard alcohol strength of 7-14%. 

Melomels (Fruit Meads): These are meads containing fruits and the base of honey, water, and yeast. Melomels have a lot more variety, as many kinds of fruits can create a Melomel. These fruit meads are very flavorful and can be made with peaches, blackberries, pineapples, limes, and raspberries, to name a few. 

Braggots: Braggots are closer in flavor to beer because it is mead mixed with beer or malt and hops.

Coffee Meads: As the name hints, these meads are brewed with coffee or espresso.

Acerglyns: These meads are made with maple syrup, so they pack a sweet taste.

Pyments: These meads are made with grapes. These are not like wines, though, because the beverage uses honey to create the alcohol in the mead.

Cysers: These meads are made by adding apple juice to the fermentation. This is not like a cyder because a Cyser still depends on the honey for its fermentable sugar that turns into alcohol. 

Bochets: Bochets are meads that are made with honey that has already been heated for a caramel-like flavor.

Capsicumels: This unique mead is made from chili peppers, and for those who like a balance to the sweet honey, this would be a nice choice to try.

Rhodomels: These meads are made with rose petals.

Metheglins: These meads have spices or botanicals, which add a lot of variety. Spices can include nutmeg, cinnamon, and rosemary. Meads of this type can be enjoyed warm and are popular to drink during the holidays.

Great Meads: Great meads are meant to be aged. Much like wine, these meads can also be still or sparkling and range from dry, crisp, rich, or sweet. These meads also take their time to reach their maximum of flavors.

If you're thinking of picking out a mead to enjoy but need some help, here are some tips of what to look out for:

Taste: If you have the chance to try out different kinds of meads, the high-quality ones keep the flavor of good quality honey with hints of other aromas, like earthy or floral tones, which complement well with the honey fermentation.

Flavors: Meads come in various flavors, so if you know you like peaches, try and choose one with the peach essence.

Aging: Meads are aged anywhere from a couple of months to a few years. The depth and differences in flavor also depend on the time of fermentation. If you like something similar to a well-aged wine, you can start by picking a mead that has fermented some years for a similar profile.

Since there are so many meads to choose from, various hints of flavors can pair better with certain foods. Meads can taste anything like cider, beer, or fruity wine. Nowadays, it's easier to find places that make locally crafted meads, each with their unique flavor using local ingredients. You can pair a spicy mead with some red meat or try a fruity mead with soft goat cheeses or Parmesan cheese.

To save yourself some time heading to the store, you can try the Instacart app. An Instacart shopper will do the shopping for you, and you can get your groceries delivered the same day.