Okay, I'll be honest. I have never, ever tried mead before. Ever. I'd read about it, imagined myself a bearded Viking singing drinking songs while sloshing mead about in a curled horn. But to have actually drank some, nope. I even started brewing mead based on the descriptions by others, but no personal experience of my own of which to speak. I figured it was time.
We are lucky here in Michigan that we have a meadery called B. Nektar Meadery. I recently visited a beer and wine emporium called The Brew and Vine that happened to carry several types of mead from B. Nektar, and I chose Chazzano caffe ebraica, an Ethopian Harrar Mead. The thing that caught my eye was the proclamation of "wildflower mead with fresh roasted coffee." I love coffee. I grind my own beans, use a French press, and particularly enjoy a strong coffee with a dollop of heavy cream. So I was eager to give this, my very first mead, a try. Call me a mead-virgin if you will, but I was moments away from losing my maiden-head.
The bottle: fluted glass, light blue in color, dark enough to protect the mead from the ravages of sunlight with an eye catching label clearly describing the contents. Drink local indeed! There, on the left hand side, sits a little bee gauge, from sweet to dry, with the little bee icon sitting close to the sweet side.
Removing the cork: Wrapped lightly in foil, exposing the opening, and there sits a cork. Honestly, I was expecting a screw off cap. How delightful this cork! Class in a glass. The only downside here is that my corkscrew chewed up the cork before it could actually bite into it, though I was finally able to extract the cork without contaminating the contents with cork bits. A pop, and I was but a moment away from mead nirvana.
Aroma: I sniffed deeply from the opening, reveling in coffee first, then honey, and finally an alcohol twang. I have an allergy thing going on right now, so my sniffer is not really up to snuff, but enough to delight in the Harrar coffee smell. Per the label, "we cold soaked nearly 1/2 lbs per gallon of it (the coffee) for 48 hours to extract as much as the wonderful flavor and aroma as possible.". Well played, sir. Well played.
First taste: Wondrous! Delightful! Ambrosial! What had I been waiting for?! Smooth, hint of coffee that lingered on the tongue with an almost overwhelming sweetness. I allowed the nectar to sit on my taste buds acquainting myself with this, my first mead ever. I had to check myself that I didn't quaff the entire sample. Yes, friends. It was that good. At 14% ABV, quaffing = running nekkid through the woods. Definitely a mead to be savored, not gulped down like a man in a desert with naught to drink.
Needless to say, I will be purchasing more of this mead, from the meadery itself when I visit, very very soon.
My rating: five out of five smilies. (since I am not allowed to post so many smilies in a row)
We are lucky here in Michigan that we have a meadery called B. Nektar Meadery. I recently visited a beer and wine emporium called The Brew and Vine that happened to carry several types of mead from B. Nektar, and I chose Chazzano caffe ebraica, an Ethopian Harrar Mead. The thing that caught my eye was the proclamation of "wildflower mead with fresh roasted coffee." I love coffee. I grind my own beans, use a French press, and particularly enjoy a strong coffee with a dollop of heavy cream. So I was eager to give this, my very first mead, a try. Call me a mead-virgin if you will, but I was moments away from losing my maiden-head.
The bottle: fluted glass, light blue in color, dark enough to protect the mead from the ravages of sunlight with an eye catching label clearly describing the contents. Drink local indeed! There, on the left hand side, sits a little bee gauge, from sweet to dry, with the little bee icon sitting close to the sweet side.
Removing the cork: Wrapped lightly in foil, exposing the opening, and there sits a cork. Honestly, I was expecting a screw off cap. How delightful this cork! Class in a glass. The only downside here is that my corkscrew chewed up the cork before it could actually bite into it, though I was finally able to extract the cork without contaminating the contents with cork bits. A pop, and I was but a moment away from mead nirvana.
Aroma: I sniffed deeply from the opening, reveling in coffee first, then honey, and finally an alcohol twang. I have an allergy thing going on right now, so my sniffer is not really up to snuff, but enough to delight in the Harrar coffee smell. Per the label, "we cold soaked nearly 1/2 lbs per gallon of it (the coffee) for 48 hours to extract as much as the wonderful flavor and aroma as possible.". Well played, sir. Well played.
First taste: Wondrous! Delightful! Ambrosial! What had I been waiting for?! Smooth, hint of coffee that lingered on the tongue with an almost overwhelming sweetness. I allowed the nectar to sit on my taste buds acquainting myself with this, my first mead ever. I had to check myself that I didn't quaff the entire sample. Yes, friends. It was that good. At 14% ABV, quaffing = running nekkid through the woods. Definitely a mead to be savored, not gulped down like a man in a desert with naught to drink.
Needless to say, I will be purchasing more of this mead, from the meadery itself when I visit, very very soon.
My rating: five out of five smilies. (since I am not allowed to post so many smilies in a row)
