Saturday 23 October 2021

The Meading Room offers sweet alternative in Arizona’s wine country

From eminetra.com

Combining honey with water and yeast produces mead, one of the oldest alcoholic beverages known to humans. Mead debris has been found in ancient Chinese pottery since about 7000 BC, with more examples from ancient Greeks, Scandinavians, Egyptians, and Celts.

This bold ancestral wisdom has been repackaged for the modern audience by Kylie Daniels and Barbara Christianson.

The mother-daughter team opened The Meading Room in Sonoita in September 2019. Christianson is a former Raytheon engineer and Daniels is an experienced winemaker with a degree in art from the University of Arizona. Their collective skills have created a venue with stunning views and savoury light meals.

The main building is surrounded by rolling hills and offers 360-degree views of the distant mountains. Daniels and Christianson worked hard to build a property to their liking. Almost everything is made by ourselves and all drinks are handmade in the production room.


The team wanted to stand out in the competition when they first considered starting a business in the Arizona wine region. According to Daniels, Mead was very versatile and Christianson had the skill to create interesting flavour combinations.

“You can add almost anything and create very complex flavours,” says Daniels. “We have created a” new fashion “that is a spin of the” old fashion. ” It is avocado flower, orange blossom honey, cherries, aged in barrels with bourbon and tempranillo ports. “

Their drink offerings change seasonally due to the availability of products from other local businesses. Daniels’ favourite mead is a breakfast club developed with locally roasted Brazilian cold beer. Christianson has developed the Hatch Green Chilies Margarita, which has a delicate balance of spicy and sweet flavours.

However, pandemics will test their business strategy in just a few months after opening. Like most small businesses during the pandemic, The Meading Room had to be closed and the team wondered if they were going to make it in the wine country.

“One of the biggest hurdles I had was not following the huge social media yet, so when everything was shut down and I tried to push online orders, I had so much reach. I didn’t have it, “said Daniels.

Christianson and Daniels have renewed their business by expanding outdoor space and shifting focus from the inside. They landscaped a lawn courtyard, added aisles, built a poultry farm, a butterfly garden, and plenty of outdoor seating options.

Christianson said he changed the serving procedure to reduce the infection of the virus.

“After COVID, we switched to flights, so we put them on trays so people could take them out and separate them,” Christianson said.

With all these changes, The Meading Room is increasing its production every month to meet demand.

“Within the two years we’ve created, the demand in the tasting room was so high that we increased production five-fold,” says Daniels.

We also collaborate with locals to hold events in the courtyard. They recently hosted a Chilean festival where you can enjoy live music, roasted Chile and barbecues.

Christianson said he is planning a Christmas market during the holiday season and will host local Halloween games. The Patagonia acting group will play Heidi’s monkeys at 7 pm from October 28th to October 30th. The play is touted as a psychological horror and costs $ 10 at the door.

The Meading Room has had tremendous success during the pandemic, thanks to Daniels and Christianson’s swift business strategy.

“Both Kylie and I are very creative. I like to have fun coming up with new ideas and experimenting with different ideas,” says Christianson.


https://eminetra.com/the-meading-room-offers-sweet-alternative-in-arizonas-wine-country-on-the-menu-tucson-arizona/801430/


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