Mead in London+Paris. Will trade w/ locals

Salamander · Apr 5, 2013

Hi everyone, I'm new.
First thanks Vicki for this amazing resource and the awesome FAQ-Must read post. It was nice meeting you at the Mazer Cup and I am definitely a return participant(of the mead mixer) from now on.

Ok yall, I am travelling to London for 2 nights and Paris for 6 from April 23rd to the 4th.
I am looking for any info on mead I can try and/or purchase in both London and Paris. So far I have heard Lindisfarne and Lurgashall held in high regard in England and have heard nothing of mead in France(particularly that I can buy in stores in Paris).

Also I can acquire some Californian mead in San Francisco, where I live, to bring with me to either Paris or London for trade with your own local stuff if you can meet me in either Paris or London. I'm allowed 4 bottles on the plane.

At my local store I can get Rabbitsfoot mead, Redstone mead, Mountain Meadows mead(my favorite so far) and a few others I can't remember. I also have a few bottles of HoneyRun mead and a bottle of Chaucers mead in my closet I can trade..

If you live in or near Paris or London and would like to arrange a mead swap I'd love it.

Peace out all ye magestic mazers! Your all hella cool and I look forward to sharing my experiences of European meads.

fatbloke · Apr 5, 2013

Well as far as the swap idea goes, work would preclude that (truckers tend to avoid London as much as possible).

Lurgashall is about 30 or so miles SW of London (Guildford area). Lindisfarne is completely out the question (check the map).

But not all is lost potentially. Within Greater London you'd have to find a specialist seller...

And well regarded doesn't mean easily available/found.

The one possible resource that may or may not be practical for purchase is Middle Farm in Sussex. You'd still have to get there though. Its about 50 miles south of London, at a village called Firle which is between Lewes and Eastbourne.

They keep a range of meads (maybe 5 or 6 or so) , along with a massive range of cider (hard cider in US parlance). Plus other stuff. I don't remember whether their website is .com or .co.uk but its "middlefarm". So possibly worth a look etc.....

Salamander · Apr 5, 2013

Thank you, unfortunately because of time restraints I won't be able to leave London. I can buy Lindisfarne in the stores and probably Lurgashall(not sure), so for a swap I'm looking for something different than those

fatbloke · Apr 6, 2013

Salamander said:
Thank you, unfortunately because of time restraints I won't be able to leave London. I can buy Lindisfarne in the stores and probably Lurgashall(not sure), so for a swap I'm looking for something different than those

I did wonder if that might be the case.......

You still may have a bit of a hunt on your hands though.......

Well London should be the place to find a few choices, yet I suspect big £'s. Places like Fortnum & Mason, maybe the food halls at Harrods or possibly Berry Bro's & Rudd. Places like those arent cheap ! But easily found/located given your time scale.....

Paris ? ah.....the rudeness of parisiens......legendary. Londoners can be "cold" but for a parisien level of surliness outside Paris you could try a quick meal in Wong Kei, in Wardour Steet (just off Shaftesbury Avenue in the west end). Funny as hell, the waiters being famed for their rudeness (much like parisiens hence my analogy). The food is good (better even if you speak/read Cantonese/Mandarin).

There are a couple of members who claim London as their location, they may have better ideas/options to try and assist?

Salamander · Apr 6, 2013

fatbloke said:
I did wonder if that might be the case.......

You still may have a bit of a hunt on your hands though.......

Well London should be the place to find a few choices, yet I suspect big £'s. Places like Fortnum & Mason, maybe the food halls at Harrods or possibly Berry Bro's & Rudd. Places like those arent cheap ! But easily found/located given your time scale.....

Paris ? ah.....the rudeness of parisiens......legendary. Londoners can be "cold" but for a parisien level of surliness outside Paris you could try a quick meal in Wong Kei, in Wardour Steet (just off Shaftesbury Avenue in the west end). Funny as hell, the waiters being famed for their rudeness (much like parisiens hence my analogy). The food is good (better even if you speak/read Cantonese/Mandarin).

There are a couple of members who claim London as their location, they may have better ideas/options to try and assist?

Hahaha. Thanks for recommending a restaurant with bad service I guess, lol. And I have always enjoyed what English have to say about the French. Can't say it's not entertaining.

I realize it might be pricey for mead, but if it's mead I cant get in the US than it would be worth the cost.

I just looked up all 3 locations to look for mead that you mentioned and they're all perfectly convenient for me. Thanks so much! I feel confident I'll find something good.

As far the as the Chinese restaurant goes I live in San Francisco where we have the largest Chinese population outside of Asia. I'm afraid any Chinese food in the UK will only disappoint compared to what we get here. We're more interested in trying good Indian food in London.

By the way, I have also discovered that Lindisfarne mead isn't actually mead. Their website says they add honey and herbs to fermented grape juice. So there goes one bottle I was going to get.

I still have hopes in getting Lurgashall mead and Moniack mead. Although Moniack says they're only an online retailer, so I'd have to get a bottle shipped somewhere in London and pick it up, that leaves me a bit frustrated, dont know how I'll do that, maybe our hostel will accept a package but I don't trust a hostel to keep my bottle for me to pick it up when I arrive. Unless I can have it shipped to the Post Office and pick it up from there.

fatbloke · Apr 6, 2013

Salamander said:
Hahaha. Thanks for recommending a restaurant with bad service I guess, lol. And I have always enjoyed what English have to say about the French. Can't say it's not entertaining.

I realize it might be pricey for mead, but if it's mead I cant get in the US than it would be worth the cost.

I just looked up all 3 locations to look for mead that you mentioned and they're all perfectly convenient for me. Thanks so much! I feel confident I'll find something good.

As far the as the Chinese restaurant goes I live in San Francisco where we have the largest Chinese population outside of Asia. I'm afraid any Chinese food in the UK will only disappoint compared to what we get here. We're more interested in trying good Indian food in London.

By the way, I have also discovered that Lindisfarne mead isn't actually mead. Their website says they add honey and herbs to fermented grape juice. So there goes one bottle I was going to get.

I still have hopes in getting Lurgashall mead and Moniack mead. Although Moniack says they're only an online retailer, so I'd have to get a bottle shipped somewhere in London and pick it up, that leaves me a bit frustrated, dont know how I'll do that, maybe our hostel will accept a package but I don't trust a hostel to keep my bottle for me to pick it up when I arrive. Unless I can have it shipped to the Post Office and pick it up from there.

Ha ha! No no, Wong Kei isn't known as a bad restaurant. Exactly the opposite. Good quality, fast, cheap, food albeit served by waiting staff who want to get you in and out. Very " chinese transport cafe" in approach instead of the grovelling "the customer is always right" sort of way we've be3n trained to expect. Yes, possibly a bit more "europeanised" than youre familir with but none the less good, cheap and sometimes very entertaining.

I'll check to see about the possibility of drop and collect type deliveries if I can (limited also to web/out of hours type stuff as the dont like me parking a 44 tonner outside just to ask questions).

Keep your eyes on this thread. If I can work out about anything that might help or be useful I'll post it here for you.....

Salamander · Apr 7, 2013

fatbloke said:
Ha ha! No no, Wong Kei isn't known as a bad restaurant. Exactly the opposite. Good quality, fast, cheap, food albeit served by waiting staff who want to get you in and out. Very " chinese transport cafe" in approach instead of the grovelling "the customer is always right" sort of way we've be3n trained to expect. Yes, possibly a bit more "europeanised" than youre familir with but none the less good, cheap and sometimes very entertaining.

I'll check to see about the possibility of drop and collect type deliveries if I can (limited also to web/out of hours type stuff as the dont like me parking a 44 tonner outside just to ask questions).

Keep your eyes on this thread. If I can work out about anything that might help or be useful I'll post it here for you.....

Thanks mate, your the kind of person I was hoping I might run into on this forum. Cheers

Chevette Girl · Apr 7, 2013

Just for your information, you don't have to go all the way to Europe to get Moniack... they do export to Ontario...

Salamander · Apr 7, 2013

Chevette Girl said:
Just for your information, you don't have to go all the way to Europe to get Moniack... they do export to Ontario...

Thanks
There's 2 other meads that I'd really love to get from Canada as well.
Munro's Black Currant Melomel, they're out of Ontario too.
And Intermiel's Medieval Sweet Mead Reserve, they're out of Quebec.
These were a couple of my favorites from the Mazer Cup this year.

By the way Chevette, have you tried Moniack mead?

skunkboy · Apr 8, 2013

Munros is an hour east of Sarnia? hhmmm....maybe I should actually get my passport and visit Ontario again...

Search

Mead in London+Paris. Will trade w/ locals

Salamander

NewBee

fatbloke

good egg/snappy dresser.....

Salamander

NewBee

fatbloke

good egg/snappy dresser.....

Salamander

NewBee

fatbloke

good egg/snappy dresser.....

Salamander

NewBee

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE

Salamander

NewBee

skunkboy

NewBee