By Gina Clarke
While prosecco was once the drink to welcome I’ve converted many of my friends to the ‘drink of the gods’, and you’re more likely to see us sipping on mead than toasting with sparkling wine
Part of the appeal of mead is perhaps that it doesn’t feel gendered in the same way prosecco is
It was a hot sunny day at a castle and I was cooling off in the gift shop when I spotted a table full of whisky, fruit brandy and – surprisingly – mead.
I had known mead in my younger days, but it was always something brewed in a cellar and would only come out when my friends and I had drunk the rest of our parents’ alcohol.
Often housed in a dusty bottle, we used to hold our noses before knocking a tot of mead back. But these bottles on the table in front of me were different – they were tall, slender and beautifully designed. Inside, the drink was a tempting golden colour and tasted sweet and gentle, with no sign of the home-brewed burn I remembered from my teenage years.
According to the conservation charity English Heritage, sales of mead have been increasing by around 10 per cent each year for the past three years, with younger drinkers leading the way. They now sell one bottle every 10 minutes.
This may seem surprising, but there is a sense of nostalgia among young drinkers that this trend is tapping into. From the soaring popularity of gin – previously considered a tipple of upper-class grannies – to a surge in speakeasies and the craft beer movement, many people are looking to the past as a way of reviving their drinking habits.
While prosecco was once the drink to welcome I’ve converted many of my friends to the “drink of the gods”, as it was once known, and you’re more likely to see us sipping on mead than toasting with sparkling wine.
Part of the appeal of mead is perhaps that it doesn’t feel gendered. While prosecco is considered a traditionally “female” drink and beer its masculine equivalent, mead holds no such preconceptions, and allows people to step outside of their comfort zone and enjoy it together – without the undertone of cultural prejudice.
While in the past we have experimented with making our own sloe gin, I quite fancy trying my hand at mead next. Seeing how beautifully presented those bottles are at the visitor’s centre made me realise what a disservice those dusty drinks had done all those years ago. English mead is something to support – it offers a refreshing drink with a sweetness that makes you clamour for another glass. But it also only lends itself to a few sips after dinner, so I never feel too bad the next morning.
It’s exciting to see a drink that has hitherto been overlooked become popular once again. As a culture we are often clamouring for the next innovation, but it’s trends like these that remind us that sometimes the best things are the simplest. The past has a lot to offer – and using cocktail hour to encourage a reverence of history can never be a bad thing.
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