mead - History of mead, Varieties of mead, Mead in Contemporary Religious Worship

An alcoholic beverage derived from fermented honey. It was widely drunk in Anglo-Saxon England, and was known as hydromel by the Romans.

Mead is a fermented alcoholic beverage made of honey, water, and yeast. Mead is also known as "honey wine," even if it is considered a separate and distinct type of alcoholic beverage.

A mead that also contains spices (like cloves, cinnamon or nutmeg) or herbs (such as oregano or even lavender or chamomile) is called metheglin.

A mead that contains fruit (such as strawberry, blackcurrant or even rose hips) is called melomel and was also used as a means of food preservation, keeping summer produce for the winter.

Mulled mead is a popular winter holiday drink, where mead is flavored with spices and warmed, traditionally by having a hot poker plunged into it.

History of mead

And after that he [King Vortigern] had been entertained at a banquet royal, the damsel stepped forth of her chamber bearing a gold cup filled with wine*, and coming next the King, bended her knee and spake, saying: "Lavered King, wacht heil!".

The history of mead may go back more than 8,000 years. The oldest known meads were created on the Island of Crete ; mead in a form of honey and herbs and not necessarily alcoholic was seen as a shamanic entheogen. Mead was the drink of the Age of Gold, and the word for drunk in classical Greek remained "honey-intoxicated."

Mead was once very popular in Northern Europe, often produced by monks in monasteries in areas where grapes could not be grown. Mead was a favoured drink among the Polish-Lithuanian szlachta (nobility). During the Crusades, Polish Prince Leszek I the White explained to the Pope that Polish knights could not participate in the Crusades because there was no mead or beer in Palestine.

In Norse mythology, mead was the favourite drink of the Norse gods and heroes, e.g.

In Russia, mead remained popular as medovukha and sbiten long after its popularity declined in the West.

In Finland, a sweet mead called Sima (cognate with zymurgy), is still an essential seasonal brew connected with the Finnish Vappu (May Day) festival.

Ethiopian mead is called tej and is usually home-made.

Evidence exists that mead was also made in India, Southeast Asia, China, Japan, and Central Africa.

Mead is also mentioned in many old north Anglo-Saxon stories, including in the epic poem Beowulf, and in early Welsh poetry such as Y Gododdin.

The word "honeymoon" in English is supposedly traceable to the practice of a bride's father dowering her with enough mead for a month-long celebration in honor of the marriage. One of the most famous producers is the Holy Island of Lindisfarne in North East England, where mead has been produced since Anglo-Saxon times.

Varieties of mead

Mead can have a wide range of flavors, depending on the source of the honey, additives called "adjuncts" or "gruit" (including fruit and spices), yeast employed during fermentation, and aging procedure. Mead can be difficult to find commercially, though some producers have been successful marketing it. Consumers must bear in mind that some producers have marketed white wine with added honey as mead, often spelling it "meade." Blended varieties of mead can be known by either style represented. For instance, a mead made with cinnamon and apples can be referred to as a cinnamon cyser or as an apple metheglin.

Some meads retain some measure of the sweetness of the original honey, and some can even be considered as dessert wines. Drier meads are also available, and some producers offer sparkling meads, which (like champagne) can make for a delightful celebratory toast. It has been said that "a mead that tastes of honey is as good as a wine that still tastes of grape".

Take of spring water what quantity you please, and make it more than blood-warm, and dissolve honey in it till 'tis strong enough to bear an egg, the breadth of a shilling;

Historically, meads would have been fermented by wild yeasts and bacteria (as noted in the above quoted recipe) residing on the skins of the fruit or within the honey itself.

Mead can also be distilled to a brandy or liqueur strength.

Different types of mead include, but are not limited to:

Braggot - Braggot (also called bracket or brackett) marks the invention of Ale.

Black mead - A name sometimes given to the blend of honey and black currants.

Cyser - Cyser is a blend of honey and apple juice fermented together.

Great mead - Any mead that is intended to be aged several years, like vintage wine. The designation is meant to distinguish this type of mead from "short mead" (see below.)

Hydromel - Hydromel literally means "water-honey" in Greek.

Melomel - Melomel is made from honey and any fruit. Depending on the fruit-base used, certain melomels may also be known by more specific names (see cyser, pyment, morat for examples)

Metheglin - Metheglin starts with traditional mead but has herbs and spices added. (Though the Welsh word for mead is medd, the word "metheglin" actually derives from meddyglyn, a compound word comprised of meddyg, "healing" + llyn, "liquor".)

Morat - Morat blends honey and mulberries.

Omphacomel - A medieval mead recipe that blends honey with verjuice;

Oxymel - Another historical mead recipe, blending honey with wine vinegar.

Perry - Perry-mead blends honey with milled, ripe pears. (See entry for the modern drink Babycham.)

Pyment - Pyment blends honey and red or white grapes. Pyment made with white grape juice is sometimes called "white mead."

Rhodomel - Rhodomel is made from honey, rose hips, petals, or rose attar, and water.

Sack mead - This refers to mead that is made with more copious amounts of honey than usual. It derives its name from the fortified dessert wine Sherry (which is sometimes sweetened after fermentation, and in England once bore the nickname of "sack".)

Short mead - Also called "quick mead". A type of mead recipe that is meant to age quickly, for immediate consumption.

Show mead - A term which has come to mean "plain" mead; (Since honey alone does not provide enough nourishment for the yeast to carry on its life-cycle, a mead that is devoid of fruit, etc. will require a special yeast nutrient and other enzymes to produce an acceptable finished product.)

Tej - Tej is an Ethiopian mead, fermented with wild yeasts (and bacteria), and with the addition of gesho.

Mulsum - Mulsum is not a true mead, but is unfermented honey blended with a high-alcohol wine.

Medovina - Macedonian (of the Republic of Macedonia) and Croatian for mead.

Półtorak - A Polish mead, made using two units of honey for each unit of water

Dwójniak - A Polish mead, made using equal amounts of water and honey

Trójniak - A Polish mead, made using two units of water for each unit of honey

Czwórniak - A Polish mead, made using three units of water for each unit of honey

Gverc or Medovina - Croatian mead prepared in Samobor and many other places. Word “gverc” or “gvirc” is from German "Gewürze" and it refers to different spices added to mead.

Mead in Contemporary Religious Worship

Mead is an important part of Asatru and Norse Heathenism, the reconstructed worship of the old Norse gods.