I sometimes despair of the negative traits of the "human condition" !
Especially when we don't realise that we have it.
All the "my booze is better/older/tastier" etc, competitive sh1t ? Is mostly marketing nonsense.
We know beer/wine/mead, all have roots going back at least 2 millennia. Fine.
Plus we all understand that the changes in the fashion for drinking certain types of booze are most likely to do with commercial needs of turning round investment quicker, so we can boast about being wealthier/richer than the next bloke.
Meads just happen to be a bit weird, inasfaras, they were almost forgotten, except as mentions in historical text (excluding a few places, like Poland, Ethiopia, etc).
So why do we need to re-invent those negatives ?
Sure there are elements of western society, are more interested in it for the historical connections, so that's nice (I've no real interest in all the ren fayres and dressing up stuff - that's mostly influenced too much by the Hollywood parasites IMO).
Maybe we can just run with the idea of making the best meads we can, given our differing local resources, and enjoy the side benefit that globalisation of trade means we can often have a go at making types that wouldn't normally be possible.
Then explain and publish the detail, in a simple open/democratic way.....